This week’s news about a mass shooting in a high school in Southern California; fraternity-related deaths on 3 college campuses in WA, AZ, and CA; and drug overdoses and suicides at USC, shouldn’t be a surprise to me. I spend vast amounts of time with teens and 20/30-somethings – it’s part of life as a college/career advisor. I’ve noticed that a majority of them suffer from depression and feelings of being isolated or left out.
It’s sad when stories that should be headline news, don’t make it to the headlines because we’re mired in relentless stories of madness from impeachment hearings to escalated climate crisis to corruption at every level. Tension has become the new norm, and our children are feeling the brunt of it. While parents are treading water to stay afloat both financially and emotionally, our kids are figuratively screaming for help.
Sensory overload overwhelms our children. They are inundated with homework, studying for exams, and preparing for college admissions. Access to information at their fingertips, they are so overwhelmed with data that they don’t have the bandwidth to understand concepts beneath the superficial surface. Kids don’t read books for pleasure or to escape for a few hours. They actually don’t read emails or texts if they’re longer than a few words.
Like back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, students didn’t trust the elders (back then they were the “authority figures” or “the man”). This sense of betrayal by the boomers who’ve left them a lifestyle that is doomed leads them to numb the pain by participating in unhealthy activities like vaping or smoking, eating too much (or too little), or any of the other classic signs of depression. Parents, we need to watch their shows, listen to their music, and talk to them. That’s the only way we’re going to understand their fears, frustrations, and views. How many mass shootings, suicides, fraternity deaths, and drug overdoses will it take for us to put down our cell phones, make it home to have dinner with the family, and engage with our kids — while we still can?
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