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> Young adults are struggling with their mental health. Is more childhood independence the answer? Prospects in life is the answer. The article goes over how

> Young adults are struggling with their mental health. Is more childhood independence the answer? Prospects in life is the answer. The article goes over how independence in adolescence could help reduce people's anxieties, and closes with the following which sums up the article rather nicely > “When we are controlling a young adult’s experiences, and they go without that full range of emotional experience, we’re actually curbing people’s opportunities to live full lives, and have the full range of human experience.” Observe then, that absence of prospects means lack of independence. There is no reasonable form of independence when you need to work 9-5 just to cover your most basic living experiences. > “It’s about being proactive and not feeling like you’re a victim, how you can control some things, but you can’t control everything,” But as a person, you are living in our society, and you are bound by the rules and the situation you are born into, not everyone has the opportunity to explore and put themselves in relatively difficult situations without significant consequences because that is often very taxing, especially for the destitute. It is not possible to circumvent one's economic background, or remove it from the equation. Getting your clothes dirty, putting yourself in harm's way (even minor) can be very expensive, and thus taxing. It is absurd to expect people to go out of their comfort zone when doing so has so many tangible negatives for them. I come from a very poor family, and all of my young adulthood was spent clawing out of poverty through education. Sure, I have overcome the anxiety described in the article, but it wasn't because I had independence. I didn't have a car to go to university, my family left me there in the morning, I didn't have a job for a non trivial portion of my studies, I just didn't eat until it was time to eat at home and only if we had something. I didn't go to trips because I spent my summers working in internships trying to escape poverty. I didn't explore the area I did my master's in because even taking the metro meant that I'd have to choose between a meal and a trip. I am by all means fearless and bold because I have marketable skills and a hunger for better. By all means, I was lucky to be born in a time when my skills are useful to the system.

resoluteteeth 4y ago
I'm not sure you are really using "independence" in the same way as the article if you saying that you are not "independent" when you are not living with your parents and working 9-5? Maybe you are thinking more about financial independence but that's not really the issue the article is talking about, which is more abut children learning to be independent from their parents. It seems like the kind of independence being discussed is probably orthogonal from career prospects except in the sense that kids who can't go to college and get jobs that pay enough may not be able to become independent from their parents for longer.
- PartiallyTyped 4y ago
  I have updated the comment to better reflect my situation, during university I didn't explore or live like my peers because I didn't have a car nor any form of allowance to go out. I just stayed at the labs and studied. I didn't eat out, but I ate at home when we had something to eat. I grew up with very few life skills and what the article described, I didn't have any reasonable socialisation until I became 17, when every decision I made was scrutinized, from where I was going to who I was meeting with and so on. I didn't , nor could I for that matter, do anything like the article described simply because it was too expensive. What I am trying to get to is that it's a lot easier to make decisions that lean towards independence if the cost of such decisions is actually very small, and with absence of financial safety, one can not simply act in such a manner because the calculus is far more complex.
kylenoteboom 4y ago
Thank you for your thorough reply. You've managed to make manifest some thoughts I've been pondering for quite some time now. > There is no reasonable form of independence when you need to work 9-5 just to cover your most basic living experiences. If all your life is spent on just making sure you get to survive, how does on manage to make the world better? If all one's mind is spent on making it through the next month, or week, or even day, how can we expect them to make a meaningful change at large? This world has brought about the availability of an incredible amount of even more incredibly brilliant minds, but for some reason we choose to not actively make use of them. Somehow, actively, we choose to let some of the most productive and knowledgeable of human beings go to waste. I am not sure this was the exact sentiment you were aiming for, but what you wrote resonated for me and here we are. I do have to admit that I do not know the "solution" to what I am (or might be) suggesting is the problem here, but if we might just be able to figure this out, there might just be hope for all of us. Or I might just believe in Interstellar a wee bit too much ;)

resoluteteeth 4y ago

I'm not sure you are really using "independence" in the same way as the article if you saying that you are not "independent" when you are not living with your parents and working 9-5? Maybe you are thinking more about financial independence but that's not really the issue the article is talking about, which is more abut children learning to be independent from their parents. It seems like the kind of independence being discussed is probably orthogonal from career prospects except in the sense that kids who can't go to college and get jobs that pay enough may not be able to become independent from their parents for longer.

PartiallyTyped 4y ago
I have updated the comment to better reflect my situation, during university I didn't explore or live like my peers because I didn't have a car nor any form of allowance to go out. I just stayed at the labs and studied. I didn't eat out, but I ate at home when we had something to eat. I grew up with very few life skills and what the article described, I didn't have any reasonable socialisation until I became 17, when every decision I made was scrutinized, from where I was going to who I was meeting with and so on. I didn't , nor could I for that matter, do anything like the article described simply because it was too expensive. What I am trying to get to is that it's a lot easier to make decisions that lean towards independence if the cost of such decisions is actually very small, and with absence of financial safety, one can not simply act in such a manner because the calculus is far more complex.

kylenoteboom 4y ago

Thank you for your thorough reply. You've managed to make manifest some thoughts I've been pondering for quite some time now. > There is no reasonable form of independence when you need to work 9-5 just to cover your most basic living experiences. If all your life is spent on just making sure you get to survive, how does on manage to make the world better? If all one's mind is spent on making it through the next month, or week, or even day, how can we expect them to make a meaningful change at large? This world has brought about the availability of an incredible amount of even more incredibly brilliant minds, but for some reason we choose to not actively make use of them. Somehow, actively, we choose to let some of the most productive and knowledgeable of human beings go to waste. I am not sure this was the exact sentiment you were aiming for, but what you wrote resonated for me and here we are. I do have to admit that I do not know the "solution" to what I am (or might be) suggesting is the problem here, but if we might just be able to figure this out, there might just be hope for all of us. Or I might just believe in Interstellar a wee bit too much ;)