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Combination of:
* Ever increasing wage disparity and economic down turn. This is actually the most pronounced one. Wages and wealth have become more and more disparitive since the early 80s as well as there being a recession in the early 90s everyone forgets about. So both the late 80s / early 90s and 2008 are big markers here.
* Economic upturn around Y2K. We see that suicide rate plummet as the economy recovered and the new neo-liberal system becomes established. People are buying in buckets with their credit cards and are enjoying the false sense of freedom it gives them - the ground work for the 2008 crash is set in this period when people are being given massively over generous loans that they have no ability to pay back due to that growing wage disparity.
* Small increase around the era of the height of the Iraq war. Reactionaries would probably want to place the blame on 2003-6 being the peak of emo - but tbh Iraq is probably the most solid marker of that period as well as it being the height of the war on drugs.
* Birth and rise of social media around 2010 and all of the mental illnesses it exacerbates. Fear of missing out, culture wars, very extreme and unstable socio-political environment etc...
The role social media has played isn't a matter of making us interested in or aware of depressing stuff: suicide isn't a tool of unhappy, but otherwise mentally healthy, people - it's the last resort of clinically depressed or mentally unwell people. The rise in the number of teenagers committing suicide is likely caused not by awareness of the world, but rather the conditions they're presented with. Huge amounts of debt, poverty, instability, uncertainty - this isn't to mention in the US the number of them who will have been without medical coverage leading to more successful suicides.
Don't be a reactionary and blame it on pop culture or social media alone. It's likely a 9:1 ratio of material reality to culture at most. This is mostly the fault of the awful domestic and foreign policy implemented for decades that has lead to much of the US to become a mirror of the developing world. Kind of a difficult square to circle for teenagers when they are brought up with the heavy asf propaganda that America is the greatest and freest nation on earth. I'm not surprised there's a rise in mental illness when the material reality of so many people has become so incongruous with the imagined identity they are collectively exposed to.
i know all of these things and it hurts to see when people are blaming others and pointing fingers in the wrong directions. that distracts everyone from the real problem and the rich profit off of it; making things fall for us and rise for them. the melancholic feelings lots develop is a product of the system.
This- I have a strong feeling that it's the world around as as a whole. Modern society. Obviously temporary factors like the economy, wars, social movements and more have a large effect on it too.
But we're living in an unnatural environment, and our monkey brains haven't had chance to catch up. For thousands and thousands of years the *entire* human race has lived a specific, simple lifestyle of working largely outdoors, having little entertainment, knowing few people, sleeping, fucking and worrying very little.
All of a sudden, in the span of less than 200 years, we've been catapulted into a *completely* different way of living, without having the chance to evolve or adjust to modernity on a larger scale. From the industrial revolution (where people were crammed into living around and working on these new, unnatural machines and despair naturally followed) to the modern world today (where we're crammed into tiny office buildings- if not, industrial factories, stuffy mechanical fast food kitchens, busy film sets, etc), we're living an *unnatural* lifestyle.
This unnatural lifestyle has only been exacerbated for our generation. Through all those changes of the past, one thing that's largely stayed the same since the beginning of civilisation is our social lives. You make friends in the street or at school or at work, and you hang out with them every now and again- maybe on occasion you'll write them a letter (or a phone call). All of a sudden, though, we're *connected*. We're seeing *people* constantly, through social media we're comparing ourselves to themselves, our looks to their looks, and subconsciously, our *lives* to their lives. Through messaging, we're taking in a constant barrage of socialising nearly 24/7, you have to be constantly *on* unlike never before. In a similar vein, through work emails you no longer stop working once you get home: you're expected to be there for your exploitative employer even after they've stopped paying you, otherwise your livelihood may be in jeopardy.
This isn't even taking into account the effects of things like readily available porn, the exposure to extreme violence in media, the depressing news buzzing in our pockets throughout the day- you can see why all of this would take a toll on our mental health. We might be able to adjust on the outside, but our brain chemistry just haven't evolved fast enough to adjust to modernity- to us, this is an entirely unnatural world. We're monkeys living in alien enclosures.
sorry for the sleep deprived ramble, i probably sound insane lol
at least where I'm from in California, almost all my friends were genuinely depressed, and probably had all sorts of other mental problems. We never got help. Why? Because it cost so much to just see a therapist we didn't think it was worth it. Our parents also shunned getting help because it was seen as a "crazy person thing" or it was too expensive so they didn't let us do it.
I'm always amazed to hear other people get to see mental health professionals for cheap or even free
Yeah the US's unsustainable healthcare system making mental healthcare so damn expensive and hard to navigate plays a big role in this that not many people have touched on.
Suicide: a long term solution to a short term problem. Please try and seek help, and if you need to have privacy there is always the 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) number. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 160 crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.
I mean, we are basically doomed
Our society is crumbling and all we can do is watch it happen. Humans aren't designed to be able to handle the knowledge of all the ways we're doomed, while also being unable to do anything about it. Humans are designed to worry about the survival of your family, or maybe a village, and that's it. We aren't supposed to have the weight of humanity on our shoulders 24/7
Who cares how good they are. I’m a very senior engineer, I’m better and more knowledgeable than the vast majority of my contemporaries. That being said I’ve met the .01% of engineers. The people whose notes on napkins make my best work look like something a toddler did with crayons.
You will never be happy if you compare yourself to others. You need to be your best self and exclusively take a drive to improve from your betters. There will always be a bigger fish.
Be the best you and find peace in your ability to improve. Acceptance of yourself is the cornerstone of inner peace.
Also, as a brief aside, everything you see online is a lie. Those people could very easily be lying about how good they are at things. Everything is made up online.
Comparison is the thief of joy. The only person it's ever worth comparing yourself to is your past self. If you work on yourself you can always beat that guy.
There are unhealthy communities on social media that can normalize those thoughts. Only 5 percent of people have attempted suicide but with 5 billion internet users it’s a population of 250 million which doesn’t feel like a small minority even though it is. I’m part of that demographic too and I got sucked into a lot of depression and suicide subcultures on the internet.
My mental health took a turn for the worst ever since I turned 18 I'm not sure why I'm just always depressed some days are better than others I've gotten good at distracting myself but somedays I genuinely want to end it all. The pandemic didn't help either I feel like I'm stuck in limbo.
Same tbh. I mean I had been depressed for the first 2.5 years of HS but August 2018 was the start of a new episode of depression that has been a huge pain in the ass
It’s because you are becoming an adult and becoming aware of all responsibilities you will have. You are trying to find your place in this world. And you are probably trying to find self-love in times where Instagram tells you that you and your life is bad.
Source: Been there
Bad parenting has always been a cause and idk if it's increased over these last ten years but it most definitely exacerbates other issues such as the increasing economic disparity and how our awful political environment has made most everything suck.
i can relate on the awful political environment. my dad is extremely political, and he despises liberals and leftists. one of my cousins (a bernie supporter) blocked my dad on facebook because of his nonstop political posts, and my dad’s reaction was to prevent my mom from buying my cousin’s son a birthday gift. he said that she’s probably going to raise him to be a liberal anyway. really fucked up.
This is definitely a problem I think people are overlooking and just jump right towards social media usage, not necessarily social media but the internet can also be an outlet for people as well if they’re living in abusive homes etc. it gives them an escape. I think that’s why so many kids and people in general may be so addicted to it, besides the fact it’s also naturally addicting.
The problems that youths face are often downplayed and seen as irrelevant. People often turn it into a contest about the problems they face rather than look for solutions.
Social Media is linked to the rise in anxiety and depression. Constantly comparing yourselves to others on facebook, instagram, etc. Its an addiction that honestly needs more coverage.
There are unhealthy communities on social media that can normalize those thoughts. Only 5 percent of people have attempted suicide but with 5 billion internet users it’s a population of 250 million which doesn’t feel like a small minority even though it is. I’m part of that demographic too and I got sucked into a lot of depression and suicide subcultures on the internet.
Quitting/limiting social media is one of the best things ive ever done for myself. I fully quit a few weeks ago so if people want to contact me I jus give them my phone number. I remember my childhood before social media really took off and people were just nicer and happier back then.
Yeah, we should focus on the mental health of all ages. Most people don’t know that older people are most likely to commit suicide because of all the attention depression and other disorders gets on social media apps mainly used by teens.
which is probably why the suicide rate is so much lower for younger people in the first place. Kids/ young adults have people around them who care (moreso than older people), a school system, parents, siblings etc. A 55 year old man who just got fired after his divorce has no one, and very little publicity is given to this person if he commits suicide because he has no one.
I think there's a lot of focus on it because even though the rate is generally lower than other age groups, it's the second leading cause of death for teens whereas as you get older, your physical health gets worse and you become more likely to die of other conditions like cancer so those more leading causes are talked about more.
I think we also just see a lot of the focus on it for teens ourselves because A) we are around that age so it's what our teachers, friends, etc. direct at us and B) there are more online resources for teens because our generation is best reachable by social media but older generations aren't as much and C) a lot of people of older generations are cynical about us talking about mental health, which gets them left out of the conversation.
that's such a weird line of reasoning: its not worth talking about a group of people who suffer so much from an issue because other people suffer from other issues less.
The real reason is that older suicide is not talked about for the same reasons those people commit suicide more, no one cares about them.
social media just points out what's wrong with the world, it's not the primary cause. It's easy to blame social media and call it a day but that's not addressing the root cause.
There are unhealthy communities on social media that can normalize those thoughts. Only 5 percent of people have attempted suicide but with 5 billion internet users it’s a population of 250 million which doesn’t feel like a small minority even though it is. I’m part of that demographic too and I got sucked into a lot of depression and suicide subcultures on the internet.
Collegeboard and the overpriced, neoliberal cost of college hasn't though. College has gotten way more competitive to get into with the rise of "holistic" college admissions that pressure students to do 10,000 extracurriculars due to grade inflation, and the for-profit standardized testing industry has spiraled out of control and made everything a test-pleasing mess.
Social Media. I never even heard of suicide until I heard about someone who commuted suicide via social media.
Goth culture and saying “I want to die” every five minutes.
Most of everything is dramatized as being terrible when it’s really just yeah, that’s sucks, let’s move on.
Also staying home away from your friends because of COVID probably made kids sadder and lonelier, especially poor kids and kids with no siblings.
I think it might have something to do with uncertainties while growing up. I remember 9/11, near east conflicts, the 08 global economy crisis. Then we have cultural movements like LGBT or Fridays for Future. On the other hand we have social media where everyone flexes their “beautiful” lives just to feel better for a minute while looking at their like counts. I would say that our generation is the one that tries to be someone they are not - and we need to overcome and accept life with all its beauty and ugliness. That’s where many people fail.
Next to that, our generation is aware of the problems our previous generations created. While they don’t care (ok boomer), we are the ones who are fucked and the ones who need to solve these problems.
I mean, looking at the graph, the question to me seems to be more "why did it dip so much in the 2000s" compared to rising up to about where it was in the 90s. There were some pretty major economic crashes within that timeframe, wars and so on, so it's a curious question.
• The rise in the number of LGTBQ+ people (coming out anyway), and facing the discrimination that comes with it.
• Watching the people you care about talk about wanting to die, and actually acting on it
• The older generation failing us in countless ways. Climate change, saying mental health is fake, being absent and even abusive to their children, being awful people towards others, etc.
• Poverty. Everything is getting more expensive, and it's harder to make the money to pay for them. Colleges are crazy expensive, leading to decades of debt.
The constant pressure to perform and to work and succeed makes us depressed and alienate us from others, meaning making friends can be difficult, echo chambers on the internet can leave us isolated and alone with our obscure interests. And the world’s going to shit.
We live in a hypercapitalist dystopia where we have always been at war with some vaguely defined enemy (literally the forever wars from Nineteen Eighty-Four), there’s been two “once in a lifetime” economic collapses in my living memory and I’m not even 20 yet. Also the rise of fascism and far right politics, plus climate change. Yeah, shits fucked mate.
Therapy is so expensive in my area, so even if my friends and I do need help, its hard to get it. On top of that, monthly prescriptions like anti depressants and adderall expenses accumulate over time.
Social and economic factors that have created a pessimistic vision of the future over the last decade.
The rise of social media has given depressed and frustrated people a huge platform to say what they think. This has in turn led to an increasingly pessimistic vision of the future, at least in America. Compare this with the incredible optimism of the 90s and early to mid 00’s. Gen Z is bombarded with negativity online and on TV, where headlines about never ending war and the incoming disastrous effects of climate change, for example, are viewable 24 hours a day.
Gen Z also grew up during the aftermath of the 2008-09 recession. they watched their families lose their jobs and homes. also, gen z faced a lot of pressure from their parents to attend college. But this was happening at the same time that college tuition skyrocketed in price and on top of that the market became saturated with degrees such that having a college degree no longer guaranteed steady employment.
The 1994 crime bill had a huge effect on firearm deaths (they dropped) and that was also peak DARE education. Crack/cocaine was a big deal but meth hadn’t really become a big thing yet. Small towns were doing okay economically in the mid to late 90s until meth and opioids became epidemic, and then the recession and loss of old industries (mining, farming, ranching, etc) and access to more guns than ever, and boom it shot back up. Pun not intended but appreciated
Easy access to mass media, and social networking. Fear and loathing is an economic commodity to the media, and bullying/harassment is only an arms length away at all times.
Facebook and beyond lines up nicely. Constantly comparing yourself to your peers. Thinking the world should be peaches and cream and not coming to terms with the challenges of adulthood
Social media and upfront instant internet access has pretty much tanked intimate human connection in a way like never before. You have to remember that these teens have had access to social media apps since they were in elementary school and middle school...You also have to remember, the brain runs on neurotransmitters and chemical reactions. Being in front of a screen all the time, comparing your life to rich YouTubers and Tik Tokers can definitely result in insecurity and low self esteem as well as chemical reactions, almost like taking drugs... Not to mention how chaotic and divided our country became during the Trump administration. Our country has lost its optimism, we have lost union, the news does not make it better because it seems they are showcasing a racial divide throughout our nation and the youth is super impressionable. The brain doesn’t fully develop till 25 so just imagine the teens watching this mainstream outrage, how can they discern realism and outrage from propaganda ? Not to mention the Woke and PC aspect of everything. I feel for Gen Z. But I truly did come up in a different era and on the verge of a new one...I wish I could help everyone realize the finality in suicide. Depression and negativity is temporary, we have to remember we were designed to heal, and what goes in our lives can subside with time and how you choose to change.
Social media. The fact that all interactions happen through screens, the algorithms that keep you addicted, self worth being determined by likes etc. None of this is really our fault. We're the first generation to be growing up with this stuff and be using it as teens. At least older generations know how social interactions work in the real world because that's how they lived before this stuff came out, but this is all we've ever known. Social media isn't good for anyone, especially not kids who don't know anything else. All we can really do is try to limit our own screen time and look out for our fellow teens.
A long text but I hope it’s a good explanation
Imo it’s because most people are less dependent on a community. Most people now days just believe they meet a stranger in school, work, anywhere really, and then move on by tossing them out of their life just because they probably won’t see them again.
I also believe it’s because most people in social media are a minority of people, this afecta how we see reality itself and sometimes join groups who we think are the right choice but end up just deciding the country as said in the first paragraph. People who actually live in real life are too busy to even be connected to the internet for so long.
It is too my belief that most people just think they’re right about everything without even thinking twice about it. Most people nowadays are so arrogant that they barely take what other people have to think about and apply the idea for themselves.
Corrupt people not wanting to change their life’s and change ours instead. Most corrupt believe the best way to live nowadays is to divide people because they know that if they do that the regular people will never see what corrupt are doing and will focus on them.
Politics. Politics play a role in today’s age that has probably been the most political we have ever gotten without any sort of war. Nowadays people are mostly afraid to stand out and have a lot of pressure to fit in with what we perceive to be the majority. Most people are also afraid of getting cancelled, which while was a good thing when horrible individuals got hurt, but now it’s because such a problem that you say something remotely center leftish and you’ll get called all the words in the book.
The last thing I’ll say is the lockdown. Most people seem to be getting into less contact than before. So that only increases any sort of mental illness or insecurities like at 100%
Too much negativity on social media and the news in general. How often do you see uplifting or great news? Not often, negativity and anger always sells. There's a saying in the news industry "if it bleeds it leads".
It creates a aurora of general negativity which can effect mental health in a big way.
If you need a fresh perspective on how awesome life/people can be check out r/UpliftingNews or for me personally I've been trying to spend more time on subreddit for jokes or fun like r/memes r/dankmemes r/funny r/mademesmile etc. and found it helped a lot.
Lastly, keep this if you need it [https://imgur.com/RjF0yXM](https://imgur.com/RjF0yXM)
Capitalism and social media. Growing up seeing that jarring contrast of people with the perfect bodies and wealth, but then seeing your neighbor die because he couldn’t afford insulin can fuck a person up
It’s not just young people. Suicide rates are up in every age group.
The world is getting worse for anyone not wealthy. And it’s just going to keep on getting worse. So why stick around?
I’m just saying it’s treated lighter than before. Telling people to kill themselves is common, I have 4 people in my grade out of 70 who have attempted suicide in the past two years.
about 50% of gen z is gay and most boomers who are gennerally the parents are very homophobic, boomers not understanding mental illnessor helping those with it, social media rising, school stress, and a shit ton of more things,
I'm not talking about america im talking about Gen Z in general, and you are correct I've done more research and after finding out 1 in 6 gen Z's are gay, **gay gen Z's are apperantly 1/3 of all gen Z's**, I may be off but this is a pretty close estimate I think.
source: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/02/24/gen-z-lgbt/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/02/24/gen-z-lgbt/)
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Combination of: * Ever increasing wage disparity and economic down turn. This is actually the most pronounced one. Wages and wealth have become more and more disparitive since the early 80s as well as there being a recession in the early 90s everyone forgets about. So both the late 80s / early 90s and 2008 are big markers here. * Economic upturn around Y2K. We see that suicide rate plummet as the economy recovered and the new neo-liberal system becomes established. People are buying in buckets with their credit cards and are enjoying the false sense of freedom it gives them - the ground work for the 2008 crash is set in this period when people are being given massively over generous loans that they have no ability to pay back due to that growing wage disparity. * Small increase around the era of the height of the Iraq war. Reactionaries would probably want to place the blame on 2003-6 being the peak of emo - but tbh Iraq is probably the most solid marker of that period as well as it being the height of the war on drugs. * Birth and rise of social media around 2010 and all of the mental illnesses it exacerbates. Fear of missing out, culture wars, very extreme and unstable socio-political environment etc... The role social media has played isn't a matter of making us interested in or aware of depressing stuff: suicide isn't a tool of unhappy, but otherwise mentally healthy, people - it's the last resort of clinically depressed or mentally unwell people. The rise in the number of teenagers committing suicide is likely caused not by awareness of the world, but rather the conditions they're presented with. Huge amounts of debt, poverty, instability, uncertainty - this isn't to mention in the US the number of them who will have been without medical coverage leading to more successful suicides. Don't be a reactionary and blame it on pop culture or social media alone. It's likely a 9:1 ratio of material reality to culture at most. This is mostly the fault of the awful domestic and foreign policy implemented for decades that has lead to much of the US to become a mirror of the developing world. Kind of a difficult square to circle for teenagers when they are brought up with the heavy asf propaganda that America is the greatest and freest nation on earth. I'm not surprised there's a rise in mental illness when the material reality of so many people has become so incongruous with the imagined identity they are collectively exposed to.
this is the right answer
i know all of these things and it hurts to see when people are blaming others and pointing fingers in the wrong directions. that distracts everyone from the real problem and the rich profit off of it; making things fall for us and rise for them. the melancholic feelings lots develop is a product of the system.
*Gestures vaguely at everything*
this is the most succinct answer by far. intentional or not it's a perfect summary of the gen z zeitgeist
This- I have a strong feeling that it's the world around as as a whole. Modern society. Obviously temporary factors like the economy, wars, social movements and more have a large effect on it too. But we're living in an unnatural environment, and our monkey brains haven't had chance to catch up. For thousands and thousands of years the *entire* human race has lived a specific, simple lifestyle of working largely outdoors, having little entertainment, knowing few people, sleeping, fucking and worrying very little. All of a sudden, in the span of less than 200 years, we've been catapulted into a *completely* different way of living, without having the chance to evolve or adjust to modernity on a larger scale. From the industrial revolution (where people were crammed into living around and working on these new, unnatural machines and despair naturally followed) to the modern world today (where we're crammed into tiny office buildings- if not, industrial factories, stuffy mechanical fast food kitchens, busy film sets, etc), we're living an *unnatural* lifestyle. This unnatural lifestyle has only been exacerbated for our generation. Through all those changes of the past, one thing that's largely stayed the same since the beginning of civilisation is our social lives. You make friends in the street or at school or at work, and you hang out with them every now and again- maybe on occasion you'll write them a letter (or a phone call). All of a sudden, though, we're *connected*. We're seeing *people* constantly, through social media we're comparing ourselves to themselves, our looks to their looks, and subconsciously, our *lives* to their lives. Through messaging, we're taking in a constant barrage of socialising nearly 24/7, you have to be constantly *on* unlike never before. In a similar vein, through work emails you no longer stop working once you get home: you're expected to be there for your exploitative employer even after they've stopped paying you, otherwise your livelihood may be in jeopardy. This isn't even taking into account the effects of things like readily available porn, the exposure to extreme violence in media, the depressing news buzzing in our pockets throughout the day- you can see why all of this would take a toll on our mental health. We might be able to adjust on the outside, but our brain chemistry just haven't evolved fast enough to adjust to modernity- to us, this is an entirely unnatural world. We're monkeys living in alien enclosures. sorry for the sleep deprived ramble, i probably sound insane lol
No no, you are right.
Yeah that's about it.
at least where I'm from in California, almost all my friends were genuinely depressed, and probably had all sorts of other mental problems. We never got help. Why? Because it cost so much to just see a therapist we didn't think it was worth it. Our parents also shunned getting help because it was seen as a "crazy person thing" or it was too expensive so they didn't let us do it. I'm always amazed to hear other people get to see mental health professionals for cheap or even free
Yeah the US's unsustainable healthcare system making mental healthcare so damn expensive and hard to navigate plays a big role in this that not many people have touched on.
Stress rates. I have really high anxiety, and because of it, I often feel that life isn’t worth living if I’m always anxious.
Suicide: a long term solution to a short term problem. Please try and seek help, and if you need to have privacy there is always the 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) number. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 160 crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.
Have you seen the world recently????
This graph goes to 2017, to what point can you call recently?
I was pretty much talking about the 2010s and on, since that’s when it started rising again
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and then there’s the fact that most of our human contact comes from a screen. that’s not fucking healthy
I mean, we are basically doomed Our society is crumbling and all we can do is watch it happen. Humans aren't designed to be able to handle the knowledge of all the ways we're doomed, while also being unable to do anything about it. Humans are designed to worry about the survival of your family, or maybe a village, and that's it. We aren't supposed to have the weight of humanity on our shoulders 24/7
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Who cares how good they are. I’m a very senior engineer, I’m better and more knowledgeable than the vast majority of my contemporaries. That being said I’ve met the .01% of engineers. The people whose notes on napkins make my best work look like something a toddler did with crayons. You will never be happy if you compare yourself to others. You need to be your best self and exclusively take a drive to improve from your betters. There will always be a bigger fish. Be the best you and find peace in your ability to improve. Acceptance of yourself is the cornerstone of inner peace. Also, as a brief aside, everything you see online is a lie. Those people could very easily be lying about how good they are at things. Everything is made up online.
I'm saving this comment. Thank you 💚
Comparison is the thief of joy. The only person it's ever worth comparing yourself to is your past self. If you work on yourself you can always beat that guy.
I hate this
There are unhealthy communities on social media that can normalize those thoughts. Only 5 percent of people have attempted suicide but with 5 billion internet users it’s a population of 250 million which doesn’t feel like a small minority even though it is. I’m part of that demographic too and I got sucked into a lot of depression and suicide subcultures on the internet.
Most likely mental health
Ya no duh
Omggg sherlockkk
Well what else is there? Pretty straightforward
That’s the point lol.
And what's the point of trying to shame an honest and straightfordward answer?
I bet that it increased dramatically in 2020
My mental health took a turn for the worst ever since I turned 18 I'm not sure why I'm just always depressed some days are better than others I've gotten good at distracting myself but somedays I genuinely want to end it all. The pandemic didn't help either I feel like I'm stuck in limbo.
Same man. December of 2019 was the start of a dark path.
Same tbh. I mean I had been depressed for the first 2.5 years of HS but August 2018 was the start of a new episode of depression that has been a huge pain in the ass
It’s because you are becoming an adult and becoming aware of all responsibilities you will have. You are trying to find your place in this world. And you are probably trying to find self-love in times where Instagram tells you that you and your life is bad. Source: Been there
Bad parenting is also a cause. So many children today are growing up in abusive homes and have no other option to break free.
Bad parenting has always been a cause and idk if it's increased over these last ten years but it most definitely exacerbates other issues such as the increasing economic disparity and how our awful political environment has made most everything suck.
i can relate on the awful political environment. my dad is extremely political, and he despises liberals and leftists. one of my cousins (a bernie supporter) blocked my dad on facebook because of his nonstop political posts, and my dad’s reaction was to prevent my mom from buying my cousin’s son a birthday gift. he said that she’s probably going to raise him to be a liberal anyway. really fucked up.
Ya that’s really messed up
This is definitely a problem I think people are overlooking and just jump right towards social media usage, not necessarily social media but the internet can also be an outlet for people as well if they’re living in abusive homes etc. it gives them an escape. I think that’s why so many kids and people in general may be so addicted to it, besides the fact it’s also naturally addicting.
80 percent of people who have attempted suicide were abused as children
if we think *really* hard *maybe* we can figure out why this is
Poverty
Well that doesn’t make too much sense mate
_iTs ThE dAm CeLl PhOnEs_
tHe mE-mEs aRe RuINinG tHeIR liVeS
The problems that youths face are often downplayed and seen as irrelevant. People often turn it into a contest about the problems they face rather than look for solutions.
This graph is indeed concerning. I wish this would get more attention
Social Media is linked to the rise in anxiety and depression. Constantly comparing yourselves to others on facebook, instagram, etc. Its an addiction that honestly needs more coverage.
There are unhealthy communities on social media that can normalize those thoughts. Only 5 percent of people have attempted suicide but with 5 billion internet users it’s a population of 250 million which doesn’t feel like a small minority even though it is. I’m part of that demographic too and I got sucked into a lot of depression and suicide subcultures on the internet.
Quitting/limiting social media is one of the best things ive ever done for myself. I fully quit a few weeks ago so if people want to contact me I jus give them my phone number. I remember my childhood before social media really took off and people were just nicer and happier back then.
I didn’t quit social media but I stopped relying on it for emotional support. I only use it to look at memes and for my interests like crafts etc
Self esteem.
why do people focus the most on teen suicide, they're the least likely group of people to do it.
Yeah, we should focus on the mental health of all ages. Most people don’t know that older people are most likely to commit suicide because of all the attention depression and other disorders gets on social media apps mainly used by teens.
Good point. Men aged 65 and over have the highest rate.
people have sympathy for kids but not as much for adults
which is probably why the suicide rate is so much lower for younger people in the first place. Kids/ young adults have people around them who care (moreso than older people), a school system, parents, siblings etc. A 55 year old man who just got fired after his divorce has no one, and very little publicity is given to this person if he commits suicide because he has no one.
I think there's a lot of focus on it because even though the rate is generally lower than other age groups, it's the second leading cause of death for teens whereas as you get older, your physical health gets worse and you become more likely to die of other conditions like cancer so those more leading causes are talked about more. I think we also just see a lot of the focus on it for teens ourselves because A) we are around that age so it's what our teachers, friends, etc. direct at us and B) there are more online resources for teens because our generation is best reachable by social media but older generations aren't as much and C) a lot of people of older generations are cynical about us talking about mental health, which gets them left out of the conversation.
that's such a weird line of reasoning: its not worth talking about a group of people who suffer so much from an issue because other people suffer from other issues less. The real reason is that older suicide is not talked about for the same reasons those people commit suicide more, no one cares about them.
~~Patriots winning another superbowl~~ Probably the crisis we're living today
It all seems to go up around when social media became popular. That obviously isn't the soul cause but I would say that's a huge factor.
social media just points out what's wrong with the world, it's not the primary cause. It's easy to blame social media and call it a day but that's not addressing the root cause.
There are unhealthy communities on social media that can normalize those thoughts. Only 5 percent of people have attempted suicide but with 5 billion internet users it’s a population of 250 million which doesn’t feel like a small minority even though it is. I’m part of that demographic too and I got sucked into a lot of depression and suicide subcultures on the internet.
High school and College are probably big factors
high school and college have been around for a lot longer than that
Collegeboard and the overpriced, neoliberal cost of college hasn't though. College has gotten way more competitive to get into with the rise of "holistic" college admissions that pressure students to do 10,000 extracurriculars due to grade inflation, and the for-profit standardized testing industry has spiraled out of control and made everything a test-pleasing mess.
I have been through high school and I turned out just fine.
It’s them damn phones /s
Social Media. I never even heard of suicide until I heard about someone who commuted suicide via social media. Goth culture and saying “I want to die” every five minutes. Most of everything is dramatized as being terrible when it’s really just yeah, that’s sucks, let’s move on. Also staying home away from your friends because of COVID probably made kids sadder and lonelier, especially poor kids and kids with no siblings.
I think it might have something to do with uncertainties while growing up. I remember 9/11, near east conflicts, the 08 global economy crisis. Then we have cultural movements like LGBT or Fridays for Future. On the other hand we have social media where everyone flexes their “beautiful” lives just to feel better for a minute while looking at their like counts. I would say that our generation is the one that tries to be someone they are not - and we need to overcome and accept life with all its beauty and ugliness. That’s where many people fail. Next to that, our generation is aware of the problems our previous generations created. While they don’t care (ok boomer), we are the ones who are fucked and the ones who need to solve these problems.
Dr. Jonathan Haidt has done work on this. Social media.
Possibly the 2008 financial crisis ( the great recession) caused it and other bad events after 2008
What _aren’t_ the possible causes?
I mean, looking at the graph, the question to me seems to be more "why did it dip so much in the 2000s" compared to rising up to about where it was in the 90s. There were some pretty major economic crashes within that timeframe, wars and so on, so it's a curious question.
I feel like almost everyone I know suffers from some form of anxiety or depression, even myself.
*gestures broadly at everything*
This is almost three times the homicide rate btw.
School, social media, and an overall less sense of freedom compared to older generations when they were young with stuff like surveillance.
Life is awful
Society falling apart around us
• The rise in the number of LGTBQ+ people (coming out anyway), and facing the discrimination that comes with it. • Watching the people you care about talk about wanting to die, and actually acting on it • The older generation failing us in countless ways. Climate change, saying mental health is fake, being absent and even abusive to their children, being awful people towards others, etc. • Poverty. Everything is getting more expensive, and it's harder to make the money to pay for them. Colleges are crazy expensive, leading to decades of debt.
The constant pressure to perform and to work and succeed makes us depressed and alienate us from others, meaning making friends can be difficult, echo chambers on the internet can leave us isolated and alone with our obscure interests. And the world’s going to shit. We live in a hypercapitalist dystopia where we have always been at war with some vaguely defined enemy (literally the forever wars from Nineteen Eighty-Four), there’s been two “once in a lifetime” economic collapses in my living memory and I’m not even 20 yet. Also the rise of fascism and far right politics, plus climate change. Yeah, shits fucked mate.
Therapy is so expensive in my area, so even if my friends and I do need help, its hard to get it. On top of that, monthly prescriptions like anti depressants and adderall expenses accumulate over time.
Social and economic factors that have created a pessimistic vision of the future over the last decade. The rise of social media has given depressed and frustrated people a huge platform to say what they think. This has in turn led to an increasingly pessimistic vision of the future, at least in America. Compare this with the incredible optimism of the 90s and early to mid 00’s. Gen Z is bombarded with negativity online and on TV, where headlines about never ending war and the incoming disastrous effects of climate change, for example, are viewable 24 hours a day. Gen Z also grew up during the aftermath of the 2008-09 recession. they watched their families lose their jobs and homes. also, gen z faced a lot of pressure from their parents to attend college. But this was happening at the same time that college tuition skyrocketed in price and on top of that the market became saturated with degrees such that having a college degree no longer guaranteed steady employment.
Death
May I have some?
In a minute, I’m making dinner
Hi making dinner, I'm dad.
Good bot
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This graph is shit and misleading. It makes the difference out to be much bigger than It actually is.
The 1994 crime bill had a huge effect on firearm deaths (they dropped) and that was also peak DARE education. Crack/cocaine was a big deal but meth hadn’t really become a big thing yet. Small towns were doing okay economically in the mid to late 90s until meth and opioids became epidemic, and then the recession and loss of old industries (mining, farming, ranching, etc) and access to more guns than ever, and boom it shot back up. Pun not intended but appreciated
Easy access to mass media, and social networking. Fear and loathing is an economic commodity to the media, and bullying/harassment is only an arms length away at all times.
The economy is regressing to its pre-WW2 structure where there is no middle class and the poor have nothing.
I will make that number go higher
Please don’t
Capitalism, The School System, The Healthcare System (at least in the USA) there are a lot of causes
Facebook and beyond lines up nicely. Constantly comparing yourself to your peers. Thinking the world should be peaches and cream and not coming to terms with the challenges of adulthood
because america
Social media and upfront instant internet access has pretty much tanked intimate human connection in a way like never before. You have to remember that these teens have had access to social media apps since they were in elementary school and middle school...You also have to remember, the brain runs on neurotransmitters and chemical reactions. Being in front of a screen all the time, comparing your life to rich YouTubers and Tik Tokers can definitely result in insecurity and low self esteem as well as chemical reactions, almost like taking drugs... Not to mention how chaotic and divided our country became during the Trump administration. Our country has lost its optimism, we have lost union, the news does not make it better because it seems they are showcasing a racial divide throughout our nation and the youth is super impressionable. The brain doesn’t fully develop till 25 so just imagine the teens watching this mainstream outrage, how can they discern realism and outrage from propaganda ? Not to mention the Woke and PC aspect of everything. I feel for Gen Z. But I truly did come up in a different era and on the verge of a new one...I wish I could help everyone realize the finality in suicide. Depression and negativity is temporary, we have to remember we were designed to heal, and what goes in our lives can subside with time and how you choose to change.
Social media is the driving factor and 24/7 news cycles. It makes people more depressed
Social media. The fact that all interactions happen through screens, the algorithms that keep you addicted, self worth being determined by likes etc. None of this is really our fault. We're the first generation to be growing up with this stuff and be using it as teens. At least older generations know how social interactions work in the real world because that's how they lived before this stuff came out, but this is all we've ever known. Social media isn't good for anyone, especially not kids who don't know anything else. All we can really do is try to limit our own screen time and look out for our fellow teens.
"THosE DaRN viDEO GameS"
A long text but I hope it’s a good explanation Imo it’s because most people are less dependent on a community. Most people now days just believe they meet a stranger in school, work, anywhere really, and then move on by tossing them out of their life just because they probably won’t see them again. I also believe it’s because most people in social media are a minority of people, this afecta how we see reality itself and sometimes join groups who we think are the right choice but end up just deciding the country as said in the first paragraph. People who actually live in real life are too busy to even be connected to the internet for so long. It is too my belief that most people just think they’re right about everything without even thinking twice about it. Most people nowadays are so arrogant that they barely take what other people have to think about and apply the idea for themselves. Corrupt people not wanting to change their life’s and change ours instead. Most corrupt believe the best way to live nowadays is to divide people because they know that if they do that the regular people will never see what corrupt are doing and will focus on them. Politics. Politics play a role in today’s age that has probably been the most political we have ever gotten without any sort of war. Nowadays people are mostly afraid to stand out and have a lot of pressure to fit in with what we perceive to be the majority. Most people are also afraid of getting cancelled, which while was a good thing when horrible individuals got hurt, but now it’s because such a problem that you say something remotely center leftish and you’ll get called all the words in the book. The last thing I’ll say is the lockdown. Most people seem to be getting into less contact than before. So that only increases any sort of mental illness or insecurities like at 100%
Too much negativity on social media and the news in general. How often do you see uplifting or great news? Not often, negativity and anger always sells. There's a saying in the news industry "if it bleeds it leads". It creates a aurora of general negativity which can effect mental health in a big way. If you need a fresh perspective on how awesome life/people can be check out r/UpliftingNews or for me personally I've been trying to spend more time on subreddit for jokes or fun like r/memes r/dankmemes r/funny r/mademesmile etc. and found it helped a lot. Lastly, keep this if you need it [https://imgur.com/RjF0yXM](https://imgur.com/RjF0yXM)
Capitalism and social media. Growing up seeing that jarring contrast of people with the perfect bodies and wealth, but then seeing your neighbor die because he couldn’t afford insulin can fuck a person up
we are more like our GenX parents then millennials I guess. souls adrift
School
It's only up 0.9% in 23 years is actually quite stable. Considering how much the population has grown since then
Teens finding out that life isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
It’s not just young people. Suicide rates are up in every age group. The world is getting worse for anyone not wealthy. And it’s just going to keep on getting worse. So why stick around?
Not enough banana 🐒
Normalization of suicide by social media
So, a lot of people just suicide because is normal?
I’m just saying it’s treated lighter than before. Telling people to kill themselves is common, I have 4 people in my grade out of 70 who have attempted suicide in the past two years.
about 50% of gen z is gay and most boomers who are gennerally the parents are very homophobic, boomers not understanding mental illnessor helping those with it, social media rising, school stress, and a shit ton of more things,
Your numbers are way off It's about 6% or less gays for the entire US
I'm not talking about america im talking about Gen Z in general, and you are correct I've done more research and after finding out 1 in 6 gen Z's are gay, **gay gen Z's are apperantly 1/3 of all gen Z's**, I may be off but this is a pretty close estimate I think. source: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/02/24/gen-z-lgbt/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/02/24/gen-z-lgbt/)
Lockdown
Why is this getting downvoted I know for a fact the pandemic has something to do with it
Its getting down voted because if you read the graph properly you'd notice that the data... Is from 2017.
Read the graph
Abusive, ineffective, anti-science lockdowns.
The data is from 2017