Investigative field essay

 America’s Declining Mental Health

Nicolas Lede

9/24/2023

The United States is a great place to live and is past many problems that plague many other countries. I’ve lived in the U.S. all 19 years of my life and I feel like I've noticed a trend over the years. I chose to pursue the field of psychology because growing up I saw many of my close peers at school struggle with mental health problems. So many struggled with thoughts of suicide and overall depressive thoughts. Worse than that sometimes these thoughts would be manifested into moments of self-harm. Then there was the Stoneman Douglas shooting which completely shellshocked me and my entire community. This is when I knew that I wanted to pursue psychology because despite America surpassing countless other problems, I feel like general mental health has been declining through the years in America. In this paper, I want to investigate this, I want to see if this is true, how drastic the issue is, and how it is affecting Americans on a day-to-day basis. I want to also look into possible causes for this decline and maybe solutions. I feel like identifying the problem is the first step to finding the solution so that is mostly the point of this paper. I’ve looked into mass shootings, the COVID-19 epidemic, the media consequences, the romanticization of mental health issues, and general statistics.

The first major thing to observe is what caused me to realize that this problem existed in the first place. School shootings are a great indicator of our youth's mental health states, so my first piece of research comes into looking at the rate of school shootings over the years. The numbers are shocking; according to Statista in the last 5 years, there have been over 700 shootings which is 3 times the 5 years prior. To go from 200 shootings in 5 years to over 700 is unprecedented and clearly shows some major problems in our system. I believe that the stem of these issues is that constantly media is constantly normalizing and romanticizing mental illness. People think that being sad is cool and fun, and the internet allows a lot of these thoughts to snowball due to some outrageous online communities. In terms of shootings, this can cause individuals who are already on the edge to go way over the edge and do some unimaginable things. Look up “natural selection Columbine” and you will see countless images of people dressing up as the Columbine shooters, the art of them, and people selling their shirts. It's an explosion of people praising these horrible acts of violence, likely because of some sort of mental disorder. It’s repulsive and there for anyone to see. A lot of people tie these horrible events to gun control issues or lack of security, but these are only temporary solutions. Even if these things are incorporated there will still be hundreds of kids that still suffer from these same problems and intrusive thoughts and will likely seek other means to take out their pent-up frustrations on the world. The stats on mass shootings in general are less explosive in their spike, according to Everytown Research in the last three years there have been 1900 mass shootings which is double what there had been the previous years. This indicates that mental health is still a rising problem not just in the youth of society. Still, the numbers are much more staggering for the youth which generates an interesting question. Is there something that could be affecting younger populations more than older populations or is this a common trend that spans across generations?

Apart from the rising amount of shootings, another factor to look at that is boosting this crisis, is the Covid-19 epidemic. The virus not only caused hundreds to lose their lives and globally affected millions of people directly, but it also had a more subtle effect that is still a major issue. The quarantine and constant change in life habits had an imperative effect on people's mental health. According to a study conducted by Giuntella a psychologist at PNAS; their subjects were on their phones 5 hours a day during peak Covid compared to a mere 2 hours a day before. Their subjects also were found to wake up later, do less physical activity, take fewer steps in a day, and sleep longer. These are all indications that someone is not mentally doing well and it is very likely that because of the epidemic, the lack of social interactions, constant use of social media, and being stuck inside is likely getting to their heads. This was definitely true for me as, I went from meeting new people at school, enjoying my time and genuinely learning, to being completely isolated and meeting no one. According to a study conducted by Xiong a toxicologist at the University of Toronto; they reported “Relatively high rates of symptoms of anxiety (6.33% to 50.9%), depression (14.6% to 48.3%), post-traumatic stress disorder (7% to 53.8%), psychological distress (34.43% to 38%), and stress (8.1% to 81.9%)” (1). These numbers are staggeringly high and completely disconcerting. With COVID making the masses more mentally unstable and the number of mental disabilities rising it is soon to be a greater problem than we imagine soon. Combine this new wave of disorders with what's been going on recently with the youth and we are sure to see further issues.

Now I keep on mentioning social media and painting it as a negative thing, but many people see it as a good thing. That's true there are a lot of benefits to social media and some of them are tied to mental health. However, according to McLean Hospital, a study was conducted where 173 participants were split into two groups one that was asked to limit their social media usage and another that was asked to keep it the same; “The limited group showed significant reductions in loneliness and depression during those three weeks over the group that continued using social media.” (McLean, 1). So why might this be the case? There are a lot of reasons why social media might actually affect a person for the worse. Social media often presents an idealized version of people's lives, highlighting the positive aspects and achievements, this can lead to people making comparisons to their own lives and in terms of feeling worse about themselves because they aren't as good as other people's bests all the time. Social media can contribute to the fear of missing out on experiences and events that others are sharing online. Excessive use can lead to poor academic or job performance and increased stress because you are just not spending enough time doing other things. One big one is that social media exposes young children who are given free access to the internet to graphic content, exposure to distressing or traumatic content, such as violence or graphic images, can have a negative impact on mental health, particularly if individuals are repeatedly exposed to such content on social media. The use of social media before bedtime can disrupt sleep patterns, leading to sleep deprivation. Young people may become overly reliant on social media for validation and approval, seeking likes, comments, and shares to feel valued, this can lead to anxiety. One negative impact that is associated with mass shootings is the echo chambers it can create, Social media algorithms often show users content that aligns with their existing beliefs and opinions, this can reinforce extreme views and discourage open-mindedness. People may experience online harassment or trolling, which can be emotionally distressing and damaging. All of these are contributors to why social media isn't good for a young person's mental health and almost all young people these days are glued to social media, so it makes sense that we are seeing a steep increase in people's mental health problems especially when you consider that most of the people raised with media are just now maturing and reaching adulthood.

Now we discuss what I believe is one of the greater issues associated with mental health in America. That is the romanticization of mental health.  Media is plagued by influencers and content that is all centered around sadness, whether it be songs about depression or films around sadness. The media trivializes major problems by painting them as something that is normal and wanted. People often like the idea of feeling sad because of the art that comes with it. And often people perpetuate that sadness by forwarding it to others. In high school, I feel that a large majority of kids would actually show an image of sadness to others that wasn't real, just one placed there to fit in. Actions like this create other problems; It may create unrealistic expectations about what living with a mental health issue is like, potentially leading to false beliefs and trivialization as I've mentioned earlier. I think I've personally seen this be done even feel that I have done this myself in my early years of high school. I know how harmful this can be. Another problem is in some cases, romanticizing mental health issues can inadvertently encourage self-destructive behaviors or glorify unhealthy coping mechanisms. This in more specific terms can mean that often, young people tend to believe that unhealthy coping mechanisms like self-harm, medication abuse, isolation, and other impulsive actions are cool and can be seen as normal or even attractive for many. This is obviously a horrible thing and once again something that I’ve witnessed firsthand in some of my high school peers. Another problem is that on social media platforms, there can be a competitive aspect to sharing one's mental health struggles, where individuals may try to outdo each other in terms of who has it worse. This can create a sort of snowball effect that causes many to end up making both their own situation worse and that of others because now the bar is set higher.

Overall we can clearly see that due to the explosion of technological advances, the recent epidemic, and general culture in recent years mental health is at its United States breaking point. We now face a crisis that is complex and nearly impossible to approach in a simple manner. To address these issues effectively, we must work as a whole to destigmatize mental health, promote awareness, and prioritize access to mental health services. This crisis might seem impossible to solve, but with combined efforts, we can pave the way for a future where mental well-being is safeguarded, and individuals can thrive in a supportive and understanding society. The key to a society where many of our current issues subside is one where mental health is addressed more thoroughly. Behind every crime is a person who has a reason to commit that crime. Taking away the means won't solve the issues the people are facing. And with the problems rising we need to find more ample solutions to the root of the problems.

References

Arundel, K., & Modan, N. (2022, December 21). School shootings reach unprecedented high in 2022. K. https://www.k12dive.com/news/2022-worst-year-for-school-shootings/639313/

Everytown. (2023, April 3). Mass shootings in the United States. Everytown Research & Policy. https://everytownresearch.org/mass-shootings-in-america/

Giuntella, O., Hyde, K., Saccardo, S., & Sadoff, S. (2021, February 10). Lifestyle and mental health disruptions during COVID-19 | PNAS. Lifestyle and mental health disruptions during COVID-19. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016632118 

Mass General Bigham Mclean. (2023, January 18). The social dilemma: Social media and your mental health. Here’s How Social Media Affects Your Mental Health | McLean Hospital. https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health

Mental Health America. (2023). The state of Mental Health in America. Mental Health America. https://mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america

Mental health by the numbers. NAMI. (2023, April). https://www.nami.org/mhstats

Muennig, P. A., Reynolds, M., Fink, D. S., Zafari, Z., & Geronimus, A. T. (2018, December). America’s declining well-being, health, and life expectancy: Not just a white problem. American journal of public health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6221922/

Reyes, J. (2020, December 17). Gen-z romanticizes mental illness, it’s not good. The Wolfpack. https://cphswolfpack.com/opinion/gen-z-romanticizes-mental-illness-and-its-not-good/ 

Xiong, J., Lipsitz, O., Nasri, F., Lui, L. M. W., Gill, H., Phan, L., Chen-Li, D., Iacobucci, M., Ho, R., Majeed, A., & McIntyre, R. S. (2020, December 1). Impact of covid-19 pandemic on Mental Health in the general population: A systematic review. Journal of affective disorders. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7413844/