I recommend reading this piece by Danielle Carr, a UCLA professor. I was going to post some quotes, but it's really not very long, and provides a very valuable perspective on the ongoing mental health crisis.

I'm not surprised, but national politics doesn't care about your mental health or your health care in general. Until we get them to care about putting health care reform as a big priority, we are screwed.

With the way the right is against socialism, I wouldn't hold my breath for universal health care

Along with eveyone else...

Im convinced covid plus stress will continue taking us out yearly.

I wouldn't be surprised if it takes me out in a year or two and I'm only 37.

Don't worry, kids are resilient.

Not to mention that it gets worse with each person who leaves. Each early retirement takes out years of experience that aren’t replaced.

Adults can’t properly care for children’s mental health when they can’t even care for their own. No one can pour from an empty cup.

Kids can be resilient just like adults can. Just like adults, kids can also not handle stress/pressures/ mental health issues, etc…

Throughout my early years at school we had a different principal for elementary, middle, and high school. When my class moved from elementary to middle school out principal followed us. When we moved from middle school to high school the high school principal literally had a mental breakdown a month into the year. Their solution was to have the middle school principal cover the high school as well.

So the job stress actually caused a principal to take a leave of absence due to mental health and their solution was doubling one guy’s workload. And this is the mindset of the people they had managing the children’s education.

So yeah… I’m so surprised kids mental health is at a breaking point.

Are you in K-12? I am. I thought going remote was bad, but it’s the post-Covid narcissism everyone has that’s really bothering me. We lost the sense of belonging to a community during Covid, and I’m not sure how we get it back.

I'm just speaking in general as a society.

We're all done.

And I agree. Post covid narcissism. I like that. Welll said.

Working in an elementary school, I can full-heartedly agree that students mental health is at a breaking point. But let's not forget about the educators who have to be on the front lines of this travesty. Discipline, in the traditional sense in schools, is impossible without reinforcement at home. I'm not fully placing blame on the lack of parenting, but the pandemic opened Pandora's Box

Is it at a breaking point? What does that even mean?

Good read. I learned a new word for lies, reification.

Why doesn't this shock me. Go out and about or watch the news daily - no matter your age or where you live - America's mental health is at a breaking point. Look at how politicians act and all the divisiveness out there -hostility in the parking lot of your grocery store - entertainment networks calling themselves news stations and spewing venom and untruths - it's a cesspool

Lots of chaos everywhere you turn - no wonder the kids are depressed or confused -

Until we get back to respecting one another and everyone's uniqueness nothing is going to change. Just my 2 cents

great opinion piece - unfortunately most people will not read it let alone understand it - I wish I had the answers

I was disappointed that my community didn’t care about exposing my children and immunocompromised loved ones to a potentially fatal infection. It’s hard to come back from that. Especially when they still don’t.

I 100% agree. I am a teacher and it’s gotten progressively worse since the pandemic.

I’m thinking fear of getting shot at while at school is the largest underlying stressor for kids.

In education, we reward hard work with more hard work. If you are great with kids and can handle diverse mental health/behavioral needs, you will get more challenging students sent your way. If you are a talented administrator, you will get all the toughest and stressful situations sent your way. In ten years, we won’t have enough educators to staff our public schools unless we make some drastic changes.

We are putting teachers, parents and all their egos ahead of children's needs. We sure do spend a lot of money to educate but not enough on listening to what is actually going on with kids in their day to day life. I work with many of them and what I hear constantly is that they feel as though they are a number in a system. I wouldn't blame them, we have to get back to actually listening, not telling them to learn a certain way. What did everyone think would happen when you lock kids up, make them wear a mask losing any individual identity they formally had. The educational system need a complete overhaul, reminding those at the helm that kids come 1st not teachers unions. Put money where it works, not where the union demands. Kids should be our focus, including their mental health.

I’m not surprised, we’re in a digital age where impressionable kids are being blasted with rich, beautiful, and successful people. Creating a complete and deep sense of inadequacy.

Meanwhile they’ve lived through a plague and are now facing a crumbling economy, inflation, and WW3. Would you be happy growing up in these circumstances?

I think us students are pretty aware of that

The worst part is ESSER funds were cut this year so all the behavior/social emotional specialists/ health teachers are being cut at the worst possible time. You think THIS year is bad, wait till next year.

I wonder why..... pandemic on top of social media. Social media makes bullying easier and more relentless. When I was in school, you didn't see anyone pretty much all summer. Now you have people dming you to say how gay you look all year. On top of the added pressure of fitting in, getting likes and views and trying to one up people. I'm sure it's even worse than I imagine. Kid's are assholes and psychopaths.

Don't worry National Socialism is coming

The only place I still have community is among the people who still act like Covid is an ongoing and real worry.

I wonder how many people have children in school who replied… Can say this isn’t the case for all the schools. Also from what I’ve seen, parents need to be more active in their kids lives.

Let’s not diminish the fact we learned a lot of our neighbors support violently overthrowing our government. We have also seen the open embrace of fascism from many. So no, kinda don’t want to make small talk with lots of folks anymore.

I can’t stop thinking about that situation in Alburgh, not so much the brawl itself but the multiple students who needed hospital care after “punching walls” when it was over.

Yep, I work in mental health. It’s worse now than before the pandemic for both adults and pediatrics. The difference is that resources for pediatric mental health have always been more scarce than adults so the increased demand for services combined with the Covid fallout is crushing the system and we are woefully unprepared to handle the problem. We don’t know how to fix it or help these kids with the current mental health funding. It’s disheartening and disconcerting and every one I know who is also working in the system feels the impact of it and is scared for what happens when it gets worse. Because it will get worse.

Another excellent point. Every time I drive by a home with Trump decor™, I am reminded that members of my community (still!) support installing a serial sexual assaulter as a dictator.

And every time I see anti-choice propaganda on someone’s car or in their yard, I am reminded that members of my community do not see me or my daughter as equal, valuable, and autonomous human beings.

Yes, hard to come back from that.

[eta: sorry for the quintuple post, not sure if it’s Reddit or my signal giving me fits this morning]

[deleted]

[deleted]

[deleted]

[deleted]

Parents are working two jobs to make ends meet. When can they be more active?

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this article. I've had some conversations relating to this in the recent past, discussing depression and anxiety as a normal response to an awful status quo. It was helpful, if scary in a way, to read something like this from someone smarter than me.

You guys are saints. Wish you nothing but the best

[deleted]

“A fight for mental health waged only on the terms of access to psychiatric care does not only risk bolstering justifications for profiteering invoked by start-ups eager to capitalize on the widespread effects of grief, anxiety and despair. It also risks pathologizing the very emotions we are going to need to harness for their political power to get real solutions.” Edit to credit author Carr

But we were told repeatedly throughout school closures not to worry because kids are resilient.

The worst part was ESSER funds being used to give school staff bonuses instead of benefiting the children.

Should’ve added a /s

No, I still would have gotten the downvotes, because the people that downvoted me are the same people that were parroting the "don't worry, kids are resilient" talking point.

American children are guinea pigs in a malicious, demented social experiment involving CRT and LGBT ideology being waged against them by rootless cosmopolitan billionaires trying to destroy the United States from the inside out via psychological warfare. Everyone seems to know this but nobody is doing anything about it.

Excellent read, thank you.