Everyone says we are making progress. Science everywhere points to great developments for the future when it comes to mental health. The problem is that people are facing difficulties now and many can't wait for a solution that could be 10 or even 20 years down the line. So is there anything that can be done, now, about the current state of mental health?

Current state of mental health in our society and why you should care

Despite the undeniable progress in the industry of mental health, from medication to therapy and new technology that can help a lot more with accessibility the actual situation out there is still looking grim, maybe more now that ever before. Suicide rates are still rising, as are cases of anxiety in children and teens and it is now common for most people to suffer from at least one mental health problem, even if they themselves don't know it. Now sure it might not affect you right now, but this is one of the main issues, not caring as long as it doesn't affect us personally can lead to a rapid increase in the problems we are facing.

One has only to look at what is being done about the current mental health crisis to realize that it is not working. It seems that the more individuals are being shielded and treated, the more new problems appear. And maybe nowhere is this more clear than when it comes to young children and teens. Data from all over the world shows that there has been a significant increase in anxiety disorders, ADHD and other Behavior Disorders in kids and teens. Depression is also at an all time high with suicide being the 4th leading cause of death for teens between 15 and 19. So what is going on? With all the focus on mental health, the campaigning and the money thrown at it, why is the situation not improving but instead declining?

A controversial view on the role of education and the institutions behind it

Allow me if you may to talk about education. Now, I am not by far the only one criticizing the education system and how it is ineffective but I'm not going to go towards the socio-economic problems but towards the mental health ones. There have been a lot of changes in the past 10-20 years when it comes to our education system and I think they are one of the main reasons for the increase in today's mental health problems.

In an effort to pay more attention to children's needs and how they feel schools have begun to lower their standards as well as the degree of strictness. All of a sudden children can no longer be given "so much" homework since it is stressful. Tests should be easier because there are a couple of children who perform really bad and they would be really sad and stressed if they failed. If it is not clear already, schools, high schools and even universities have started to take on the role of a care provider for the children attending there instead of a place to accumulate knowledge. The feelings of the kids slowly became more important than them learning something, albeit trough hard work dedication and the heartbreak of failing. This might sound harsh but ever since too much care and attention has been put on children and teen's feelings we see things like this:

If children are being babied all the way to college, of course so many of them will deal with anxiety when things start getting a little bit harder. The overzealous isolation measures during the pandemic did little to help the situation and in fact accelerated the worsening of problems. Also we see things like children being concerned about racial tensions. Why? Because it is now being thought in schools. You either are evil and racist automatically because of you skin color and if you don't admit that just proves that it is true or again, just because of your skin color you are automatically considered a victim and you will forever be oppressed by "the system" no matter how high you will climb or how much effort you put. Aside from this, children are no longer disciplined because it hurts their feelings so they will then, of course, break down at the first sign of hardship. And again, if you do not agree with me or think I am insane for pointing these things out, just thing about why all of these changes are hurting kids and teens mental health instead of improving it. Why is it that the more care and attention to children's feelings instead of their performance seems to have the opposite effect. This happens because humans tend to develop according to their environment and what they learn. In other words if little Jimmy learns that he can get away from doing homework by saying he gets stressed and the teacher is oppressing him, he will do that. After which he will use the same tactic to get out of many other "chores" like reading or writing or actually learning anything.

So then, you might ask, how should we teach children in schools? To answer this question you need only think about how school was in your time if you are in your mid 30's. Yes school was hard and stressful, you were constantly afraid of failing and having to repeat a grade. You did not have a choice but to get better. Adversity breeds excellence. Also, were there kids that had actual problems and difficulties learning or paying attention. Yes there were and the same goes for today. But it should be the education institution's job to correctly identify these children and help them without holding back everyone else. Yes, I said it. Help should be given without preventing others from excelling. You are not helping the situation if just keep lowering the standards. You will just create a world of mediocrity or even below mediocre. Also if I had difficulties learning and found out that the entire curriculum was changed to accommodate my needs, I would not be glad about it, I would be upset and embarrassed. You are not doing anyone a favor by babying children like this.

It is also a matter of what is being thought and not only of how

And since we are currently offending and upsetting a lot of people, we might as well continue. Also, while we are on the topic, since when has offending someone's feelings become the biggest crime that someone can commit? And why does it only go one way? For instance if I am offended by what children are thought in schools, nobody will even bat an eye, but if I would make a speech about this at a university I would probably be "canceled" or have the police sent to lecture me about "hate crimes" and "offending people". But let's get back on track and talk about what is being thought in schools. We already discussed how, the difficulty of everything related to schools is constantly being lowered in order to accommodate children's feelings but the problems don't end there with our current education system. Children are being thought about things that they a) either don't need to know right now and it is only confusing to them or b) that are mostly propaganda and are only used to indoctrinate them and push a certain agenda.

Let's first talk about the things that children, especially those in kinder garden really don't need to learn about: gender theory. Yes it is that subject that few want to tackle for fear of being canceled, called out on social media or smeared on TV. I feel like the current situation were people can identify as whatever they want and demand special treatment and words being used because of what they feel is a result of how children were babied from primary school all the way up to and including college. They were never told no and left to their own devices and we currently living in a society which is a result of that. Let me ask you an honest question: what happened to tomboys? What happened to just being different? Why does it know automatically mean that you must be another gender? Can't a girl just like cars because she is fascinated by them and not because she is actually a boy inside? This is maybe the biggest crime being committed right now. Children as young as 5 are being told and convinced that if they like certain things then it's not because of personal preference but because they are actually a different gender and that they can actually be whatever gender they wish even genders that they come up with on a whim. If this does not cause so much confusion and problems for a young impressionable mind, I don't know what does.

And the other theory that is being used to further destroy our society is the "critical race theory". Before the advent of this, children played with each other no matter their skin color but now their are being thought that some are inherently evil and some are forever being oppressed because of their skin color. This is all being done in order to cater to the feelings of a very small but extremely vocal minority who unfortunately seem to control a lot of social media and media in general. So let's imagine you are a black kid in school in 2022. Aside from being told that you are not actually a boy because you like pink stuff you are also being told that it doesn't matter how good your grades are and how well you learn because you are actually being oppressed all the time and you will never be able to achieve your best because of the "systemic racism" and the "system" and "white supremacy". What do you think that does to the mental health of that kid? When you are being lied to and told that nothing you do matters because the world is against you. Do you think that child will go home and research online to see if any of this is true? No, he will trust his teachers/indoctrinators and start hating everything, his white friends, the school, his future employers, etc. Now imagine you are a white kid. Again you can't be a girl because you like to cut your hair short and play football with the boys and also because of the color of your skin you are deemed racist, an oppressor and guilty of many things such as having "white privilege" or "cultural appropriation" if you ever dare to do anything related to another culture. What will that do to your mental health? Were do you think all these white guild individuals popped up from? The ones that think they speak for all minorities because they feel guilty and admit they are racists. Honestly as an outsider looking in at the entire situation it seems insane to me that we, the regular people are allowing things like these to go on.

Can we do anything about it?

Unfortunately the answer to that question is mostly no. As I previously said, this new social "disease" has infiltrated institutions everywhere and are actively working against anyone speaking up. Anyone who dares question the new order will be trashed and smeared to no end by the propaganda machine so that regular people will not have many chances of hearing a different opinion. And this is where we get to the caring part. Many people, including myself are often guilty of the inaction life. A life where we don't take action to change something bad unless it becomes a catastrophe or it starts seriously affecting our lives. Of course, by that time we often find ourselves unable to change anything anymore. Of course everyone has heard of the boiling frog effect by now and this is exactly what we are experiencing but also worse because it seems like it is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Years ago children had to struggle hard to become the best, now they are the best by default and everyone is the best so there is no need to try hard. Also teachers need to make sure not to stress the children and be careful with the teaching material since it might be offensive since it teaches facts or reality. How exactly did we get here?

Well as the famous quote from above so eloquently puts it, we took notice of what is happening, we frowned hard and proceeded to do nothing about it. By the time more and more voices started opposing this insanity it seems that we are already to late. What will probably happen now is that we will have at least one generation of individuals who will suffer from mental health in great numbers and who will also try to destroy the next generation since that's what they have been thought to do, weather they know it or not. So the solution? Well there needs to be a entire shift in the mentality of people so that we can change the institutions that affect our mental health starting with education. It is time to start preparing children for the real world and make them into competitive individuals instead of a homogeneous mass of mediocrity. In order to do this a lot more regular people need to go from taking notice to taking action. Weather by voting or protesting or writing letters to your local governor/mayor, something needs to be done. Otherwise we are looking at a continues collapse until the entire system resets itself. When mental health problems finally become a burden society cannot cope with anymore, people might start thinking that the approach they have towards it until now has been wrong and it needs immediate correcting.

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Julian Sanda
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