Let’s start with the definition of parenting. After 16 years as a psychiatrist, Dr. Dixon defines parenting as “providing basic food, shelter, clothing, and education.” That’s it. Curating the scaffold for your child’s coping skills and subsequent social development is not your job. In fact, if you try to do this, you’ll likely fail and our society will suffer the fallout. “Parenting” is a red herring. And our kids are suffering for it.
Our society’s whole concept of child behavior management is wrong. Yup. Decades of wrong. And we’re seeing the results: kids with poor self-regulation skills; kids who are unable to self-soothe; children and teen mental health declining; parents who feel like horrible failures; entire systems (i.e., school, medical) taking the blame and being asked to “fix” this.
Since this issue is so deeply layered from years and years of missteps, the solution is not going to be a quick and easy switch to simply flip. Parenting in and of itself is unable to solve the problem, just like the school system cannot be tasked with making things right.
The idea of parenting has morphed into a conglomeration of tips, skills, strategies, and behavior modification principles that distract from and bypass the roots of the dilemma. Mindfulness in context is the method to combat the madness, and it starts with an accurate viewpoint of child mental health trends in America.
Last year, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released some startling statistics about the intensifying youth mental health crisis after the COVID-19 pandemic. While we all felt the effects of the pandemic on our individual and collective mental health, shifting the focus on the youth of America and how they fared in these tumultuous times is vital to combating the threats on the nation’s health and wellness as a whole.
The CDC performed its first nationally representative survey of high school students and found that 37% experienced poor mental health during the pandemic, with more than 4 in 10 teens reported that they feel “persistently sad or hopeless.” Furthermore, 1 in 5 students said they have contemplated suicide.
Though these numbers are hard to stomach, these trends are not novel or surprising. The CDC had also previously reported and analyzed increases in trends of poor mental health and suicide behaviors in U.S. teens over the last decade.
Awareness of the issue is increasing though. The American Academy of Pediatrics even declared a national emergency due to the state of children and adolescent mental health. Similarly, the U.S. Surgeon General released an advisory call to action to protect youth mental health. Steps are being taken to combat the deeply rooted issue, and it will take a large scale effort to alter the course of this dark potential future. “Parenting” alone cannot solve the problem.
Context is everything in the mental health ecosystem. Simply Psych urges all people to seek out mental healthcare. Whether you are a kid or adult struggling with working through trauma or overcoming hopelessness, everyone could benefit from therapy. Mindfulness in context looks like utilizing local mental health resources that best suit your needs. Making efforts to widely and publicly encourage mental healthcare is a big step in reducing the stigma surrounding the topic.
Decreasing misinformation and disinformation is only one piece in the much larger puzzle, though. Creating a fully inclusive and accessible system for mental health care is key. We must strengthen the mental health ecosystem through increased funding as well as investments in mindfulness-centered methods of practice.
Burnout is real, and the mental healthcare workforce is still in an unfortunate state of mass exodus from the field, leading to devastating shortages. The heaviness of the situation is overwhelming enough to deal with, and they cannot be expected to take on the full burden of leading our youth (and entire nation) out of this mental health dilemma we have all found ourselves in. Investing in care starts with investing in the caregivers.
We must commit to taking strides in combating this mental health conundrum that our kids are facing. Simply Psych hopes to see this integrated by being the anti-MSO with clinicians as the focus, so that they are able to run their practices how they dream (thus patients receive better care). It’s going to take everybody working together, utilizing mindfulness in context, and making space for the mental health ecosystem to permeate through our society (in families, schools, social media, etc.) to overcome the mental health crises facing the youth of our nation.
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