We are dealing now with a generation raised on Ritalin and Adderall and other drugs.
They join a generation that came of age after the liberals succeeded in getting the nation’s mental hospitals shuttered for “humanitarian” reasons in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
We have a VERY real “mental health” crisis on our hands. We all see it, every day.
A different issue is the rise in anxiety in the healthiest, richest generation in human history - the middle and upper middle class kids in the West.
An estimated 70% are anxious. Why? They’ve been told by liberal bullies in power that the world is ending, your parents are destroying it, be afraid and hate your elders. Be angry and tear it all down. Then the lies they are told that the future will involve rationed food, water, space and even air, it will all be miserable, adds to the worry.
Another factor is the over-protection. You have a society centered around kids, partially because there are so few. They’re not allowed to get hurt and the potential for failure is removed from daily life. They get the message the world is dangerous AND that you don’t think they’re capable of handling it.
The third biggest issue is what Jonathan Haidt calls the coddling of the American mind. Teens and college students are TAUGHT pathological thought patterns like projection and catastrophizing. Your word choice is awkward? It is because you’re a bigot that hates me. Drunken hook up? He raped you, hate all men. There’s a tornado in Missouri? It is a sign the world is ending.
The Coddling of the American Mind: Haidt/Lukianoff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqCNTopdBBs