Why kids are afraid to ask for help
Yet another example of trying to solve psychological&#x2F;emotional issues through cultural changes. The root problem is low self-esteem; it&#x27;s internal, not external; it takes deep inner work, not a change in social norms and teacher behavior. It affects some kids deeply, and some not at all. It&#x27;s not &quot;caused&quot; by the culture or the environment, but by parenting.<p>Psychology is stuck in a weird place. Most cultural knowledge of &quot;self-esteem&quot; comes from self-help crap, when it should be coming from psychologists. What if we lived in a world where everyone knows how to recognize low self-esteem, how to interact with insecure people effectively, and how to help them build their self-esteem durably, as opposed to these proto-team-building-exercises they&#x27;re proposing here? The traditional thinking is that you fix emotional issues through therapy sessions; but if we changed the culture to become more emotions-aware, people would know how to help each other and themselves far better. The fact that so many pop-psychology books sell so much, is proof that there&#x27;s a deep need for this.<p>Some studies say 70-80% of people have some degree of low self-esteem. Depending on the study, 50-70% of the whole population have an attachment disorder, and literally lack the ability to form healthy emotional bonds. You don&#x27;t fix that through culture. &quot;Instructors could create activities in which each student becomes an &#x27;expert&#x27; on a different topic&quot;? Come on man. They have to let go of the old DSM-5 model of &quot;10-15 of the population is crazy, everyone else is perfectly fine&quot;. Psychologists have a far bigger role to play in society than they currently do.<p>Fixing psychological and emotional problems through cultural change just doesn&#x27;t solve anything. Fix the root cause. You would literally fix both the low self-esteem that inhibits people from asking questions, and the bullying that results from being seen as &quot;dumb&quot;.