Aware 2024 Survey - Anxiety and Depression on the Increase

I think the 24hr news cycle which can be tied in with social media is too much for a lot of young people. I'm mid 40s when I was in my teens it was the 6 one news and the evening newspaper. Just look at some of the threads here its page after page of arguments and links to news agencies from all over the world with constant bickering. I think the online world is moving far too quick than our brains can handle but the horse has bolted on that one.

Would you agree? Or beg to differ? Do you think modern life and social media is indeed fuelling an increase in mental health distress among our population?

I’d agree with some things, disagree with others, but the statistics from the survey aren’t surprising. For example:

• Despite 3 in 4 respondents (72 per cent) claiming good awareness of depression, when asked to list the main symptoms, the majority only referenced symptoms directly linked to mood… Awareness of physical symptoms and those linked to overall wellbeing was limited – not one respondent mentioned physical aches and pains
• 1 in 10 respondents under 25 have not been diagnosed but believe they are currently experiencing depression.
• Significantly, almost half (45 per cent) reported being dissatisfied with the information given about healthcare supports including talking therapies, which are an evidence based first line treatment for depression and anxiety.
• Unfortunately, perceived stigma continues to inhibit people from accessing supports. Almost half (45 percent) of those surveyed who delayed accessing mental health support cited ‘shame, embarrassment or fear of judgement’, an increase from 2 in 5 (39 per cent) in 2023.

I think that treatments for mental health difficulties have come a long way, but our approach to them is still somewhat reminiscent of previous generations “trouble with his/her nerves” and other euphemisms about it. We used balk at the ease with which in (American) movies and television the way they were so casual about having to see a therapist or self-medicate with OTC drugs, and I think there’s a stigma around wanting to go down that route. It’s not reality, but it’s what we’ve come to expect, and there’s disappointment and frustration when reality doesn’t match our expectations.

I don’t think social media is to blame for that, if it wasn’t social media it would be something else, as in we would constantly hear what our neighbours are doing. The means to compare ourselves to others would come from different sources, is what I mean. Irish society has changed massively in the last 40 years and for the most part it’s been for the better, though not for everyone - we don’t institutionalise people, well, not to anything like the degree that we used to.

I think we’ve adopted the worst excesses of capitalism, going right back to the 80s, which has led to a situation of people getting in over their heads in crippling personal debt just to keep up with the jones’, who aren’t just our neighbours any more, but influencers on the other side of the planet in a lot of respects. We don’t need to travel anywhere like they used to in the 60s and 70s to see a different world or how anyone else lives, when it’s right at our fingertips.

Our healthcare services just aren’t able to keep up with increasing demand as more people are diagnosed with chronic conditions, combined with the lack of adequate funding and resources provided for by Government and local community organisations such as those provided by organisations like Aware, Grow, etc (there’s a ton of them, just not many I can name off the top of my head), and the disaster that is CAMHS. CAMHS comes in for particular criticism as in 2023 -

• In her final report on the provision of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in the State, the Inspector of Mental Health Services, Dr Susan Finnerty, has said that she cannot currently provide an assurance to all parents in Ireland that their children have access to a safe, effective and evidence-based mental health service.

https://www.mhcirl.ie/news/mental-health-commission-publishes-final-report-child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services

I don’t imagine just throwing money at the issues which are arising from the current cultural environment will do anything to address or alleviate the underlying causes, which would require a massive cultural shift again to address them, but that doesn’t appear to be what most people actually want - people don’t want to be satisfied with less when they see people around them with more. We haven’t become an increasingly selfish, individualistic society - we were always that way. It was just that before, we had the ability to institutionalise anyone who didn’t fit in, and shield society from them so we could keep up appearances. We can’t do that any more with the relative ease with which it was achieved in previous generations.

"In particular, 1 in 4 young Irish adults are now struggling with chronic anxiety, driven by factors such as the housing crisis,….."

"Would you agree? Or beg to differ? Do you think modern life and social media is indeed fuelling an increase in mental health distress among our population?"

I think before we try to answer your questions, we need to define which conditions should be regarded as illnesses that need medical treatment, and which are perfectly understandable responses to life circumstances. For example, the manual used for diagnostic purposes, DSM V, considers grief (over the death of a loved one for instance) to be pathological if it persists for more than two weeks.😱 These are very complex issues, but the focus often seems to be "what is wrong with you" rather than "what happened to you". The influence of the pharma industry has been pernicious here, there are many so-called wonder drugs in need of an illness.

The media has also played a role (I include social media in this) - it's almost as if you are made to feel there is something wrong with you if you don't feel that there's something wrong with you. Despite a huge increase in anti depressant prescriptions in most of western societies, mental health is getting worse by most measures. I don't have many answers but I can't help feeling that the pace of change in modern sciety is a factor, along with a sense of isolation probably aggravated by covid.

I don’t imagine just throwing money at the issues which are arising from the current cultural environment will do anything to address or alleviate the underlying causes, which would require a massive cultural shift again to address them, but that doesn’t appear to be what most people actually want - people don’t want to be satisfied with less when they see people around them with more. We haven’t become an increasingly selfish, individualistic society - we were always that way. It was just that before, we had the ability to institutionalise anyone who didn’t fit in, and shield society from them so we could keep up appearances. We can’t do that any more with the relative ease with which it was achieved in previous generations.

And nowadays we have a lot more to be selfish about, and though comparisons to others are not new, it's easier (and more addictive) now.

A fix probably will require throwing a fair bit of money, but you're right about the cultural shift needed. I had occasion to be in the same room as Micheál Martin last week, though I didn't get a chance to chat to him. I was later reflecting on what I would have said to him, given the chance. I'd like to think I'd have politely informed him that though I wasn't a supporter, I was grateful for him putting himself forward to be a public representative. I wouldn't do it. Also, while maybe being critical of how the government runs the place, I'd have conceded that we don't want to fix things.

For the most part social media for me is all about programs I like, cars, Christmas, maybe a bit of true crime.

Anything negative I just unfollow and get around it.

The algorithms resist that curation. As soon as the tech companies found out that conflict generates more engagement and keeps people on their sites longer the writing was on the wall.

Facebook's backend algorithm even appointed 5 points for an anger react and 1 point for a like.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/

Starting in 2017, Facebook's ranking algorithm treated emoji reactions as five times more valuable than “likes,”

 internal documents reveal. The theory was simple: Posts that prompted lots of reaction emoji tended to keep users more engaged, and keeping users engaged was the key to Facebook's business.

Syndicated link:

https://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/machinelearningtimes/five-points-for-anger-one-for-a-like-how-facebooks-formula-fostered-rage-and-misinformation/12344/

I meant to say explicitly in my previous post that I have no doubt that a lot of people are suffering severe levels of distress. I was just questioning the fashionable reflex action of pathologising normal human emotions.

Anxious on a rollercoaster or watching a suspenseful movie: normal

Anxious to sit down on the porch and have a tea and watch wind blow through the trees because relaxing feels like a foreign concept to you/the nagging feeling that you must be doing something actively every second of the day or you're falling behind: not normal

"Anxious consumers look to brands for informational and emotional reassurance"

https://www.whitelightmedia.co.uk/anxiety-marketing/

I posted a couple or times on the Gript thread, and while tbf I was OT, I was responding to something I had seen on the thread. In true boards style I was painted as a heartless bastard, and the psychiatrist I referenced was dissed as an anti-vaxxer (she put her name to a letter questioning vaccine mandates). The suggestion was that by saying that much of what is labelled as mental illness is just a normal human reaction to a distressing situation ( grief, sick relatives, bad work situation...), I was saying that people should just suck it up. In fact I believe that in many cases it is the doctors that are saying " just suck it up", the medication, that is.

Anyway, for those that are interested, David Healy has written a lot about how the illness of anxiety was morphed into depression for commercial reasons, and Joanna Moncrieff has done a log of work on the effects of drugs on the brain. The latter has also written a fair bit about how the capitalist system has had an adverse effect on mental health in modern society. I think OEJ was getting at this earlier.

@AndrewJRenko I suspect you might find that point of view interesting. I'm not trying to promote any particular viewpoint, just pointing out that unlike cardiac health (where outcomes for heart attack patients are vastly improved), there isn't a broad consensus on best treatments. Also, despite a huge increase in drug prescribing, outcomes are worsening. Does it seem right that one sixth of adult populations in many developed countries should be on psychiatric medication, many of them permanently?