Focusing On The Wrong Pandemic?

There is no more concerning trend in the United States than the increasing rate of depression, anxiety and mental illness in young people.

This received a lot of attention during the Covid lockdowns but this trend had been underway for most of the decade before we ever confronted the pandemic.

To provide some perspective on the dimensions of the problem, consider the death rates for those age 15-24 from Covid-19, drug overdoses and suicides for the year ending March 31, 2022.

Almost 16 times the number of young people died of suicides and drug overdoses in that one year period as died from Covid!

The Covid lockdowns did nothing to help the mental health situation of young people. It exacerbated the trend that was already in place.

For example, this is a graph that shows depression scores for 12th graders from 2005 to 2018.

Levels of depression for 12th graders began to increase rather dramatically in the early 2010's.

This applied to both males and females and those with both liberals and conservative political outlooks.

However, as has been seen in most studies, there is a higher level of depression/mental health issues with women than men and with liberals compared to conservatives.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666560321000438

You can see the same trend in 12th graders in their  "self-derogation" scores. This is when someone answers "they don't have much to be proud of" or believe "they can't do anything right".

Again, this trend began in 2010-2011.

Credit: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1634218771643506688

You can see the male/female and liberal/ conservative differences in mental health in the broader data set for the population at large below.

The data is rather striking.

The more liberal you are the greater chance there is a mental health issue. The more conservative you are, the less likely that is the case.

Credit: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1630954493759090691

What is going on here?

Why the rise in mental health issues in the young?

A number of observers believe the increased use of social media and the rollout of the iPhone is responsible in some way. It is even argued that children with liberal parents were more likely to be early adopters and provided iPhones to their teenagers earlier than conservative parents. This would explain why the increasing effects of depression began earlier with liberal teens.

It is an interesting theory. We do know that being isolated and feeling disconnected from others leads to depression. A life centered around a phone, apps and texts and devoid of human interactions is not the best prescription for sound mental health.

The chart below is also very interesting.

Pew Research asked the question whether a doctor or healthcare had EVER told you that you had a mental health condition.

You would think, just based on age alone, it would be much more likely that older people would answer this in the affirmative than young people. After all, they have been around much longer and faced many more challenges and problems in their lives.

However, the exact opposite was true.

The younger you were the more likely you were to have a mental health condition at some point in your life.

This was true of men, women, liberals and conservatives.

Credit: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1634194897875116032

However, we again see the divide on the issue between men and women and liberals and conservatives, particularly in the 18-29 age cohort.

It is almost behind comprehension that over 50% of young, liberal women say they have been told they have a mental health condition.

This is the group we are relying on to birth and nurture the future generations of Americans?

This is also a large demographic that is voting overwhelmingly for liberal Democrats. 

God help us! 

I wish I had a good answer for why there seems to be more mental health issues with those who identify as liberals than there are with conservatives.

Is it simply because liberals are more honest and transparent? Possibly.

Could it be due to a victimization mindset that has become even more amplified in the social media age we live in today?

Jill Filopovic wrote this in a recent Substack that might provide some perspective on this point.

Just about everything researchers understand about resilience and mental well-being suggests that people who feel like they are the chief architects of their own life — to mix metaphors, that they captain their own ship, not that they are simply being tossed around by an uncontrollable ocean — are vastly better off than people whose default position is victimization, hurt, and a sense that life simply happens to them and they have no control over their response. 

Depression, anxiety and many others mental health conditions result when one feels overwhelmed and becomes unduly pessimistic about the possibility of anything changing in their life.

At the core, they do not believe change is possible or within their control.

Instead of being the architect of their own life and changing the things they can change individually, they focus and dwell on victimhood or any number of external issues.

The problem today is that there are plenty of things social media and the mainstream media do to fuel these thoughts.

"The world is going to end in 10 years due to climate change."

"White privilege".

"Male privilege".

"Systemic racism".

The list could go on and on.

Another fact in all of this is that white liberals are much more likely to live in an echo chamber than white conservatives despite the popular narrative being the opposite.

Credit: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1631042799788335110

When all you hear is one point of view and it is a pessimistic one at that, you are probably not going to be in the best mental state.

The default answer for many liberals is to rely on government to fix their problem.

However, as we know, it is not really in the interests of the politicians they vote for to fix the problem, even if it is possible.

A big factor in positive mental health is having a strong self-identity, Understanding who you are and being proud of what you are and what you can be.

Another interesting data point on this is that White Liberals are the only group to think more highly of other racial groups than their own.

They may think this is virtuous but you have to wonder whether this is a sign of a healthy mental state?

Finally, we have the interesting change we have seen in recent years in the percentage of those who identify as LBGT.

How do we explain this?

1.7% of those born before 1946 identify as LBGT and 2.7% of Baby Boomers but 20% of Gen Z so identify?

Has something been introduced into the environment?

Did the hard wiring of our genetics change in the span of a decade or two?

Is it something else?

Why is this important in evaluating these mental health issues?

Source: https://adaa.org/find-help/by-demographics/lgbtq

If you consider that 20% of Gen Z identifies as LBGT, and that group alone is six times more likely to experience depression, this issue by itself goes a long way to explaining the overall trend changes we are seeing in the mental health status of young people.

Do we have a big problem with mental health in the United States?

How much was spent on preventing Covid in this age group?

How much focus is going to prevent the root causes of this mental health pandemic?

It appears that our priorities might be misplaced.