7 ms·

Perhaps rather than medication we could take a closer look at why children are so anxious in the first place. I envy countries that focus on Gross National Hap

by voisin 4y ago

Perhaps rather than medication we could take a closer look at why children are so anxious in the first place. I envy countries that focus on Gross National Happiness vs GDP.

willcipriano 4y ago
> However, studies also estimate that upward of 10% to 21% of children and adolescents struggle with an anxiety disorder If 10% to 21% of kids had some sort of minor physical aliment we wouldn't be content to just treat it and not question why it is happening.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > If 10% to 21% of kids had some sort of minor physical aliment we wouldn't be content to just treat it and not question why it is happening. It's almost like the article should highlight the need for prevention as well as screening which (checks) it does.
  - b112 4y ago
    Teenagers are undergoing a flood of hormones, with a fast growing intellect (as their brains continue to develop), while their emotions are playing catch up. Teenagers are supposed to be awkward and feel anxiety, amongst endless other emotions in excess. It's a normal part of growing into an adult. Take away the act of learning how to deal with all this new emotion, and emotional intensity, and a human's growth will be stunted.
    - Shared404 4y ago
      I agree with the core of what you are saying. However, space needs to be provided to do that growth safely, and in order to that there would need to be massive changes in Sign-up-for-everything parenting culture, A's-or-die school culture, and a myriad of other things in order for this to work. As it is, this culture takes the fire and throws gasoline on it, preventing healthy growth. Even outside of that, there is a balance to be struck - while some amount of anxiety/awkwardness is expected, if it leads to suicidal thoughts, self harm, lashing out at others, or other destructive behavior, it has gone to far.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > Teenagers are undergoing a flood of hormones Most children are not teenagers. > Teenagers are supposed to be awkward and feel anxiety Diagnosable anxiety is not “feeling anxiety” in the common sense any more than diagnosable depression is “feeling sad”. > Take away the act of learning how to deal with all this new emotion No one, ever, has argued for that. Where treatment is required for childhood anxiety, talk therapy — often CBT — seems to me the first-line treatment. Which is exactly learning how to recognize and deal with problematic feelings.
misslibby 4y ago
A huge number thinks they will die because of global warming. Relentless propaganda aimed at kids takes its toll.
- legalcorrection 4y ago
  Yeah it’s jarring when you see what teenagers post online about this. They really believe that they and their friends are going to drop dead from climate change.
  - gedy 4y ago
    Reminds me of high school in the cold war: "Why bother? The bombs are coming any day!"
    - misslibby 4y ago
      That is why I disapprove of all the fear-mongering. I lived through that as a teen, and it was very depressing. I honestly thought I would never see my 30ieth birthday, either because of nukes or because of the hole in the ozone layer.
  - Shared404 4y ago
    Given the number of "Once in a lifetime events" I as an early 20 year old have lived through, I entirely understand the feeling of everything is going to collapse. The house is made of cards, and there are people running around trying collect more cards than everyone else - even when those are at the base. Meanwhile, someones turned up the AC at one end of the house and the heater at the other, and we've got weird air currents blowing every which way.
    - legalcorrection 4y ago
      - Shared404 4y ago
curuinor 4y ago
thats just bhutan bhutan's an absolute autocratic kingdom, it's just that the king is oxford-educated and does a lot of the usual enlightened monarchy stuff and seems a decent enough man. if his son is a little shit or he gets a stroke or something, that all goes down the toilet
- curuinor 4y ago
  as one of the sibling comments noted, the king's father was kinda a little shit too, so you really don't know on that rolling of the dice, basically
corazortez 4y ago
The only country that focuses on GNH is Bhutan. The same country which exiled an entire ethnicity constituting 20% of its population in the 1990s. [1] UN happiness report ranks Bhutan at 97th, Finland being first and the US at 17.[2] Bhutan’s GNH campaign is a clever marketing strategy by an autocratic government to boost its tourism revenue (main source of income), cover up its frequent human right violations, and abject poverty of the common people all at the same time. Romanticising Bhutan is a new form of orientialism. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutanese_refugees https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutanese_refugees 2. https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/happiness-benevolence-and-trust-during-covid-19-and-beyond/#ranking-of-happiness-2019-2021 https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/happiness-benevolence-...
- voisin 4y ago
  I didn’t realize only Bhutan had this metric. I was referring to Scandinavian countries which seem to be the context I’ve heard it in, but must be mistaken. In any event, I envy the concept and wish more countries adopted it.
  - mardifoufs 4y ago
    You might have a very skewed view of those countries. Things happen there too, you just don't hear about it. Policies proposals that would draw bipartisan condemnation in the US and be unanimously rejected across the aisle might not even get any meaningful opposition in the "happy nordics". Here's a very troubling example that is happening right now: Denmark is currently deporting back to syria all of its syrian refugees. They revoked their residency almost overnight and declared that Syria is now safe even if the Civil war is far from over. Considering that the groups that those refugees originally escaped from are still in power (whether it's Assad or the islamists), it basically means certain death for a lot of them (even those lucky enough to avoid reprisals will probably end up forcibly conscripted). They also argue that Damascus is completely safe for refugees who specifically escaped the syrian government security services (gestapo lite)... because that same government is now fully in control and has pacified the entire region. >In 2019, the Danish prime minister declared that Denmark wanted ‘zero asylum seekers’. That was a really strong signal* >That's really good news," Mr Tesfaye said in February. "Corona, of course, plays a role, but I think first and foremost, it's because of our strict foreign policy. Many of those who come here do not need protection at all." >The government has set a target of zero, arguing that the money saved can go towards welfare[0] The most troubling part is that all of this is happening under a "moderate" left wing government with pretty wide support and little to no actual backlash. So yeah, I'd be hesitant to use nordic countries as a model for everything. It's a lot of tradeoffs and the welfare state can be sweet for some, but I know that personally as a muslim I'd much rather live elsewhere
WalterBright 4y ago
The US doesn't do child labor anymore. Kids often don't even have their first job until their twenties.
- stefantalpalaru 4y ago

by voisin 4y ago

Perhaps rather than medication we could take a closer look at why children are so anxious in the first place. I envy countries that focus on Gross National Happiness vs GDP.

willcipriano 4y ago

> However, studies also estimate that upward of 10% to 21% of children and adolescents struggle with an anxiety disorder If 10% to 21% of kids had some sort of minor physical aliment we wouldn't be content to just treat it and not question why it is happening.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> If 10% to 21% of kids had some sort of minor physical aliment we wouldn't be content to just treat it and not question why it is happening. It's almost like the article should highlight the need for prevention as well as screening which (checks) it does.
- b112 4y ago
  Teenagers are undergoing a flood of hormones, with a fast growing intellect (as their brains continue to develop), while their emotions are playing catch up. Teenagers are supposed to be awkward and feel anxiety, amongst endless other emotions in excess. It's a normal part of growing into an adult. Take away the act of learning how to deal with all this new emotion, and emotional intensity, and a human's growth will be stunted.
  - Shared404 4y ago
    I agree with the core of what you are saying. However, space needs to be provided to do that growth safely, and in order to that there would need to be massive changes in Sign-up-for-everything parenting culture, A's-or-die school culture, and a myriad of other things in order for this to work. As it is, this culture takes the fire and throws gasoline on it, preventing healthy growth. Even outside of that, there is a balance to be struck - while some amount of anxiety/awkwardness is expected, if it leads to suicidal thoughts, self harm, lashing out at others, or other destructive behavior, it has gone to far.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > Teenagers are undergoing a flood of hormones Most children are not teenagers. > Teenagers are supposed to be awkward and feel anxiety Diagnosable anxiety is not “feeling anxiety” in the common sense any more than diagnosable depression is “feeling sad”. > Take away the act of learning how to deal with all this new emotion No one, ever, has argued for that. Where treatment is required for childhood anxiety, talk therapy — often CBT — seems to me the first-line treatment. Which is exactly learning how to recognize and deal with problematic feelings.

misslibby 4y ago

A huge number thinks they will die because of global warming. Relentless propaganda aimed at kids takes its toll.

legalcorrection 4y ago
Yeah it’s jarring when you see what teenagers post online about this. They really believe that they and their friends are going to drop dead from climate change.
- gedy 4y ago
  Reminds me of high school in the cold war: "Why bother? The bombs are coming any day!"
  - misslibby 4y ago
    That is why I disapprove of all the fear-mongering. I lived through that as a teen, and it was very depressing. I honestly thought I would never see my 30ieth birthday, either because of nukes or because of the hole in the ozone layer.
- Shared404 4y ago
  Given the number of "Once in a lifetime events" I as an early 20 year old have lived through, I entirely understand the feeling of everything is going to collapse. The house is made of cards, and there are people running around trying collect more cards than everyone else - even when those are at the base. Meanwhile, someones turned up the AC at one end of the house and the heater at the other, and we've got weird air currents blowing every which way.
  - legalcorrection 4y ago
    - Shared404 4y ago

curuinor 4y ago

thats just bhutan bhutan's an absolute autocratic kingdom, it's just that the king is oxford-educated and does a lot of the usual enlightened monarchy stuff and seems a decent enough man. if his son is a little shit or he gets a stroke or something, that all goes down the toilet

curuinor 4y ago
as one of the sibling comments noted, the king's father was kinda a little shit too, so you really don't know on that rolling of the dice, basically

corazortez 4y ago

The only country that focuses on GNH is Bhutan. The same country which exiled an entire ethnicity constituting 20% of its population in the 1990s. [1] UN happiness report ranks Bhutan at 97th, Finland being first and the US at 17.[2] Bhutan’s GNH campaign is a clever marketing strategy by an autocratic government to boost its tourism revenue (main source of income), cover up its frequent human right violations, and abject poverty of the common people all at the same time. Romanticising Bhutan is a new form of orientialism. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutanese_refugees https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutanese_refugees 2. https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/happiness-benevolence-and-trust-during-covid-19-and-beyond/#ranking-of-happiness-2019-2021 https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/happiness-benevolence-...

voisin 4y ago
I didn’t realize only Bhutan had this metric. I was referring to Scandinavian countries which seem to be the context I’ve heard it in, but must be mistaken. In any event, I envy the concept and wish more countries adopted it.
- mardifoufs 4y ago
  You might have a very skewed view of those countries. Things happen there too, you just don't hear about it. Policies proposals that would draw bipartisan condemnation in the US and be unanimously rejected across the aisle might not even get any meaningful opposition in the "happy nordics". Here's a very troubling example that is happening right now: Denmark is currently deporting back to syria all of its syrian refugees. They revoked their residency almost overnight and declared that Syria is now safe even if the Civil war is far from over. Considering that the groups that those refugees originally escaped from are still in power (whether it's Assad or the islamists), it basically means certain death for a lot of them (even those lucky enough to avoid reprisals will probably end up forcibly conscripted). They also argue that Damascus is completely safe for refugees who specifically escaped the syrian government security services (gestapo lite)... because that same government is now fully in control and has pacified the entire region. >In 2019, the Danish prime minister declared that Denmark wanted ‘zero asylum seekers’. That was a really strong signal* >That's really good news," Mr Tesfaye said in February. "Corona, of course, plays a role, but I think first and foremost, it's because of our strict foreign policy. Many of those who come here do not need protection at all." >The government has set a target of zero, arguing that the money saved can go towards welfare[0] The most troubling part is that all of this is happening under a "moderate" left wing government with pretty wide support and little to no actual backlash. So yeah, I'd be hesitant to use nordic countries as a model for everything. It's a lot of tradeoffs and the welfare state can be sweet for some, but I know that personally as a muslim I'd much rather live elsewhere

WalterBright 4y ago

The US doesn't do child labor anymore. Kids often don't even have their first job until their twenties.

stefantalpalaru 4y ago