août 11, 2024 - 5:00pm
L’agence fédérale pour la maladie mentale, SAMHSA, a publié les résultats d’une grande enquête annuelle la semaine dernière, l’Enquête nationale sur l’utilisation des drogues et la santé. Elle a estimé qu’un adolescent sur trois a reçu des services médicaux et professionnels pour traiter des troubles mentaux l’année dernière.
Les responsables de SAMHSA considèrent cette augmentation comme un développement positif des efforts pour normaliser et déstigmatiser la recherche de traitements en santé mentale. Malheureusement, ce n’est pas le cas. D’une part, l’estimation ne reflète pas combien d’adolescents ont des troubles mentaux, ce qui néglige un facteur clé. L’enquête, qui interroge les Américains de plus de 11 ans sur leur santé mentale perçue, l’utilisation de drogues et d’alcool, et les traitements reçus au cours de l’année écoulée, témoigne de ce fait. Elle estime qu’environ 32 % de tous les adolescents âgés de 12 à 17 ans — pas seulement ceux signalant un diagnostic ou une détresse anormale — ont reçu des médicaments sur ordonnance, un traitement et/ou un accompagnement pour la santé mentale dans divers établissements hospitaliers et ambulatoires en 2023.
Ce taux est inquiétant. Pour la plupart des gens, les troubles mentaux associés à des incapacités chroniques et graves ne se développent pas avant la fin de l’adolescence et le début de la vingtaine, ce qui suggère que de nombreux enfants sont traités de manière inutile. Environ 8,3 millions ont été traités l’année dernière, mais selon l’enquête, seulement environ la moitié de ce nombre (entre 3,4 et 4,5 millions) pourraient être suffisamment en détresse pour envisager un traitement.
Le récit poussé par l’industrie est que la thérapie est bonne pour tout le monde, mais le traitement de la santé mentale a des limites et peut être activement nocif. Des études montrent que ce type de traitement est moins efficace pour les jeunes que pour les adultes, et les directives établies ne sont souvent pas suivies. De nombreux jeunes se retrouvent donc à recevoir des soins de mauvaise qualité, ce qui est associé à une augmentation de l’automutilation et des hospitalisations.
Le sondage exclut également les individus dans des environnements de groupe, comme les centres de justice juvénile, les établissements de traitement résidentiels et les hôpitaux psychiatriques — où ceux souffrant de la détresse émotionnelle la plus sévère sont disproportionnellement représentés. Les Américains interrogés, en utilisant une définition inclusive, sont moins susceptibles de bénéficier d’un traitement.
Pour ceux qui sont en marge, un diagnostic de santé mentale augmente la probabilité future de décès, de maladie du travail et de chômage, tout en réduisant le sentiment de contrôle et la probabilité d’être marié. L’usage excessif de stimulants peut induire une psychose — ce qui est préoccupant étant donné combien de jeunes s’en voient prescrire pour les TDAH. Les symptômes de nombreux diagnostics courants, comme la dépression, sont transitoires et s’améliorent souvent d’eux-mêmes. Comme le dit un psychiatre éminent : aucun traitement ne devrait être la prescription de choix.
Plutôt que d’exprimer des inquiétudes, le secrétaire adjoint à la santé mentale et à l’usage des substances illicites a déclaré que la SAMHSA était « heureuse de voir » le nombre de personnes traitées augmenter de cinq cent mille depuis 2022.
Ceci est, malheureusement, peu surprenant : la politique fédérale a adhéré à l’idée non fondée que la maladie mentale peut être prévenue en améliorant « la santé émotionnelle » à travers la société. Des dizaines de milliards de dollars de contribuables sont ainsi dépensés chaque année dans des programmes et des services qui poussent indifféremment les gens vers le traitement, ou le fournissent directement.
Plus d’un demi-siècle de cette approche politique a légitimisé le traitement généralisé de la santé mentale et médicalisé des problèmes sociaux. Plus crucialement, cela n’a pas réduit les taux de prévalence des troubles mentaux.
Il est certain que certains jeunes (et adultes) souffrant de détresse émotionnelle sévère et de troubles peuvent bénéficier de services de haute qualité lorsque les avantages de ces services l’emportent clairement sur les risques. Mais nous ne soutenons pas universellement plus de chirurgies du genou et de thérapie physique pour les jeunes ayant des douleurs de croissance ambiguës. Une utilisation plus indiscriminée du traitement de la santé mentale ne devrait pas non plus être applaudie.
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SubscribeGosh, isn’t this the same group that other studies have discovered to be far more left wing or radical left-wing than the other sex/gender? Could there possibly be a connection between left wing ideology and mental health? I thought this connection was well known by now! Search for dark triad character traits and left-wing activism/authoritarianism in Google Scholar!
Just another front in the Left’s war on western culture: “Of course you’re miserable, girls, (gays, transexuals, poor, African Americans, Indigenous people, etc.) you’re being victimized by (basically adult white males) and despairing alienation SHOULD by your mindset.
“Adolescent conditions—depression and anxiety, psychological distress, and suicidal behaviors—are increasing in many countries worldwide, and that growth is occurring most markedly among girls, according to a new survey of research published by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Iowa.
“The research review article, published August 8, 2023, co-authored by Katherine Keyes, PhD, professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School and Jonathan Platt, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at UI, summarizes studies published since 2010 from around the world. The paper is published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.”
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/new-evidence-rising-youth-mental-health-concerns#:~:text=Adolescent%20mental%20health%20conditions%E2%80%94depression,University%20Mailman%20School%20of%20Public
Right on cue, several district school boards in Ontario are suing social media companies for damaging the minds of the young, particularly young girls, and impeding their education. Columnist Jamie Sarkonek in the National Post this day takes the teachers and their boards to task for their failed experimental methods in pedagogy, the elimination of merit streaming and performance standards, and for turning the schools into venues to propagandize the young with their anti-traditional ideology and radical views on sex and race – amongst other professional failings, like neglecting to discipline bad behaviour.
Those are my words on Sarkonek column but I believe with him that these practices have done more to harm young people than smartphone usage. Not that those devices haven’t done their part. I have a high regard for Jonathan Haidt, and those devices are certainly bad habit forming, but how can young people not be confused by the norm-busting going on all around them?
Social media should be sued out of existence. If Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, and ever site like them disappeared tomorrow and weren’t replaced the world would be massively better off.
Inept article. Jonathan Haidt has just produced The.Anxious Mind with a 4 step plan clearly outlining what we need to do about it. Any major podcaster in the past 14 days has carried an interview with Prof Haidt. It’s not difficult, but it does require collective action given the social pressures to engage with SM.
I do sense that society is getting ready to take action on this topic. At last…. the evidence has been clear as a lightbulb since 2016 and Twenge’s work.
Nobody’s going to do anything meaningful because to make a difference you have to destroy several of the largest corporations in the world.
A great start would be to permanently shut down Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, and anyone who tries to mimic them. They are clearly a huge net negative for our society.
What’s the point of being a woman now? The goals that young women are told to aspire to are just worn out male pattern defaults for work and play.
Put them in full Islamic dress an keep them indoors and out of public discourse. They are not, and never will be competent in this world.
An arresting idea, but not one that chimes with my hopes for the future.
Somebody put some posters around a town saying “islam was right about women” (think in the US).
None of the women interviewed had the guts to disagree. But of course they would happily denounce western society and white men.
Which ironically does prove that those posters were right. Islam was right. Western women are proving that in front of our eyes.
“worn out male pattern defaults for work and play.”
Worse.
Men worked for the satisfaction of building a home and family, played because they enjoyed sports, gaming, etc.
Women today do the career but without the responsibility of being the breadwinner, which is am empty hollow shell of a life, just trudging to office
They also refuse things like having children or taking care of their homes, because it’s “unpaid labour’ and “slavery”, and wallow in resentment that the “patriarchy ” stops them from entering spaces such as sports that they don’t even care about.
You could start by correctly labeling incessant ‘judgment and comparison’ as sexual harassment and psychological abuse, which it is. Then stop allowing it.
Easier said than done to “stop allowing it”, as though it can be waived away with a magic wand. Moreover, in my experience, girls and young women are their own worst enemies when it comes to incessant judgement and comparison, mainly amongst themselves.
Spot on. Social media just seems to have sent it into overdrive. It was bad enough in those awful women’s magazines which focussed on things like celebrity cellulite. Now it’s out of control and women are paying the price.
Yes, you have a good point there. We women are frequently our own worst enemies. This phenomenon predates social media, but has been exacerbated by being online and exposed to so much toxicity. Some of it comes from males, but a significant portion is driven by other females.
Is it “sexual harassment” if it is carried out by other women, and without any sexual intent? And much of the problem seems to be women projecting overly positive self images (“living my best life”) while simultaneously making negative comparisons between their own real life and the fake projections of other women.
I agree it’s destructive, but to try and stop it, as you say, would be like launching a war against modern female culture. You might as well try to outlaw Botox, cosmetic surgery and the rest.
You might as well try to outlaw Botox, cosmetic surgery and the rest.
.
It would be great not to see those monstrously huge shapeless lips
If you compare you are either better or worse. Both miss the point that you have to find value in yourself. The one who has to stop allowing it is yourself. And responsible adults – parents – should show that by example. Basically young females need to be contained. Father’s work. But many fathers are weak nowadays.
Or absent.
Boundaries and limits are important for boys and girls when growing up! As is taking responsibility for your actions and behaviour. Unfortunately, many parents just want to be their children’s friends, and fear that setting limits will make them unpopular. Parenting is work, and having children isn’t a walk in the park.
When young men are expected to initiate contact with women and face the risk of rejection, humiliation, judgement and being insulted, does that also count as “sexual harassment and psychological abus’