"What do you think the leading causes of mental health issues are in today's society?"
Now I responded but twitter only allows for 240 charecters so let's expand a bit off my original answer.
Lack of family structure.
I don't care what the composition of the family is, It can be the standard nuclear family model, dad works, mom is a homemaker. It can be the alternative of that, mom works, dad is the homemaker. It could be two adults of the same sex. It could be cis and trans. Who earns the cash and who does the homemaking is irrelevant, children should not be alone when they get home from school.
As adults decompress from a hard day at work, children need the love a parent gives when they get home. A parent available to get them a snack, see how their day went, learn who is bullying them and call the school, help with homework...instead "Here's some food, a TV, the internet, and don't leave the house."
We used to have "free range kids" I'd wager more than a few of my readers were themselves free ranged. You could hit the door get the attention from a parent and in an hour be out with your gaggle of buds so long as you were home for dinner, and even then so long as you called from a buddies house and say you were asked to stay you just had to be home before the street lights kicked on.
We now treat our children much as we do our pets. Their attention is provided by a screen (you do leave a t.v. or a radio on for your cat or dog right?) their nourishment (treats) come wrapped in cellophane with descriptions that defy logic (fruit tortillas? flaming hot fried cheese and cornmeal?) and we keep them safe inside a fancy crate (house, apartment, etc). We have the gaul to wonder why school bullying is an issue. Why mass homicides at school campuses are at the level they are. Why, kids seem to be having intercourse at younger ages. Then in a few short clicks on the internet you can find where children are having intercuorse with teachers.
How does a child end up having sex with a teacher? Well we are entrusting those adults or barely adults themselves, with the care of our children 30 to 40 hours a week while we are at work. So the teacher becomes a focal point and if they give the child the attention they need and crave while the child's parents are not, where do you think this will lead? The child will bond with the person giving them attention, but a teacher is not a biological relative and therefore the "ick factor" that keeps at least 50% of parents from sleeping with their children is not there and a bond can go too far.
Are video games with titles like Guns Blazing Combat, Stalker of the Night, World War Armageddon, Civil War Reenactment Battle Simulator, to blame for the mass homicides? That is an open issue, but to me they aren't helping. The closer to reality graphics get the closer to desensitization we get as well. The more the non-playing characters that you kill look like actual humans to some the less real humans actually look. Many will say "violent video games have no effect." Okay, in a laboratory or how large a sample group are you using? MIlitaries around the world use age eighteen as a recruitment age, why? Because at eighteen the human brain and especially those of male presenting humans has not finished maturing and is as moldable as modeling clay. So militaries can mold a killer with lightning fast reflexes, why can't a contiously played video game where you emerse yourself in a well thought out, well animated, world that was designed for whatever game play is intended? How many militaries now use video games for training? Do they know something the video game industry pundits do not?
We have become detached from our food origination points, people no longer equate the cow they see as we zoom past at 60 miles per hour (what's that about 120 kph?) with the burger, the cheese on the burger, or the milkshake, that they are eating in the backseat...I kind of doubt very many even understand their french fries were once potatoes. I actually used to know someone who absolutely hated onions but loved onion rings and swore they were not made from onions and it was just a name...no joke. When I was a kid meat still had blood inside that cellophane wrapped styrofoam plate. Cookies from the store meant one of about four types--I still love windmill cookies--Hostess was about your choice for little cakes, now there are entire aisles of mega-sized supermarkets of premade cookies and cakes. Now how does this figure into the discussion? I honestly lost where I was going when I had to stop and check the wash; make of it what you will, and if you don't like it tag me to your own blog post about it :-)
I'm going to cut out now, so be kind and rewind.
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