The teen mental illness epidemic is international – Part 1: The Anglosphere
Seeing as how my daughter has gone through ten years of therapy due to depression I&#x27;ll throw my hat in the ring and tell you what I think at least part of the problem is:<p>Late stage, winner-takes-all &amp; loser-gets-nothing, Capitalism.<p>Those of us who are well-entrenched in our careers may not understand how vicious the world is for the entry-level and those aspiring to launch careers. The secondary schools preach and harp about college nearly every single day. If you don&#x27;t go to college then expect to work meaningless jobs and live in squalor. I&#x27;m paraphrasing, but only a bit.<p>If you don&#x27;t know anyone going through today&#x27;s college admissions process then whoo-boy! There have been a recent spate of articles here on HN complaining about developer interviews and how insane they&#x27;ve become. Multiply the insanity by 10x and then re-label it as college admissions. You&#x27;d better have made sure you played the right sport, had the right extracurricular activities, volunteered for the right organizations, and be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. That should <i>at least</i> guarantee you a spot at your state college, maybe even a scholarship or two.<p>And speaking of scholarships - you need money for college. Lots and lots of money. More money than your parents could have ever possibly saved - and that&#x27;s if your parents are in the top 10% of wage earners. You&#x27;re going to be taking out loans, maybe spending a significant part of your adult life paying back those loans.<p>Why would you do this? You don&#x27;t want to have a menial job and live in squalor do you?<p>Meanwhile while killing themselves to get into college they&#x27;re watching billionaires literally buy the government and pass the laws they want passed. They watch politicians gerrymander so that the majority doesn&#x27;t actually have a say. They watch a moral minority strip them of every personal liberty they have and tell them how to live their lives.<p>Oh, and all these assholes are completely destroying the Earth, and their future, without a care in the world for what will come after them. In fact they don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s going to be a future because Jesus Christ is going to float down on a cloud and save them all and leave your sorry ass behind to suffer.<p>And we&#x27;re wondering, actually wondering, why an entire generation is depressed and apathetic and looking at the older generations with derision.<p>Meanwhile the depression will continue until they rise up and burn the place down. That is if they&#x27;re not so downtrodden they can&#x27;t even lift their heads any longer.<p>But yeah, let&#x27;s blame smartphones instead.