One of the things that saddens my heart the most is seeing people fighting depression and anxiety. The reality is even more painful than many adolescents and young people suffer from these ailments; this is historical news. The fight is real and we cannot have simplistic treatment in any of these cases.
To give an example, I was recently invited to preach in a youth camp and, to my surprise, the topic I was asked to talk about was exactly that, depression and anxiety. My first thought at receiving the invitation was: “I’m going to talk to such a young audience, there’s no way they’ve been having trouble with this since I was little. . . “. A pastor friend and I preached seven times and held a round table on the subject. The questions I was asked penetrated my heart. Whether you want to admit it or not, it’s a reality, even within Christian churches.
- One of the books that has helped me a lot to think better about this topic.
- Mainly on how to help people in this field.
- Is the book?Spiritual depression? By Martyn Lloyd Jones.
- Written in the 1960s.
- Lloyd Jones uses a Puritan approach.
- His initial concern is for the causes of depression.
- However much he uses different words.
- He basically repeats the triple Puritan (causes): circumstances.
- Causes.
- Physical constitution (temperaments) and spiritual causes (attacks of the devil and mainly disbelief).
- [1] Another book addressing these three causes.
- Using the life of the famous 19th-century English preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
- Is “Spurgeon’s Depression: A Realistic Hope Amid Anguish.
- ” by Zack Esmine.
- FAITHFUL Editor.
- These causes.
- But a sincere question must be asked: what would be the circumstances.
- Or the main circumstance.
- That caused this depressive condition in our adolescents and young people?We can think of different answers.
- But there is one that we can strongly suggest: overuse of smartphones and digital media.
- Such as social networks.
- SMS and games.
Our young people have experienced a new phenomenon, they relate more to technology than to people, this fact is already proven in research and books, that is why Jean M. Twenge (psychologist, writer, doctor of psychology and professor of psychology at San Diego State University) named this generation born between 1995 and 2012 “iGen”. [2] Overall,? Igen? Is it the first generation to spend all its adolescence in the age of smartphones (that’s why the name “iGen”?’I’ of ‘Iphone’ and ‘internet’). Social media and SMS have replaced other activities, although they enjoy friendship, they spend less time personally with friends, so levels of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and loneliness are surprisingly high.
View alarming data from the U. S. National Agency for Drug Use and Health Research survey. U. S. A. (NSDUH):
From 2009 to 2017, severe depression among 20- to 21-year-olds doubled from 7% to 15%. Among adolescents age 16 to 17, depression increased by 69%. Severe psychological distress, including feelings of anxiety and despair, increased by 71% among people from 18 to 25 years of age 2008 to 2017 Twice as many people as age 22 to 23 attempted suicide in 2017 compared to 2008 and 55% more had suicidal thoughts. Increases were most notable among girls and young women In 2017, one in five girls between the age of 12 and 17 had suffered severe depression the previous year.
After analyzing the possible causes of this increase in mental illness, such as poor economics, job loss and academic pressure (typical causes), Jean Twenge believes that one of the main causes is over-interactivity with technology, mainly mobile phones, the Great Villain Along with other psychologists, Jean has used other reliable sources of American research and has been analyzing the behaviors of adolescents and young people (13-17 years) since 2011 :
“Every year, teens are asked about their overall happiness, as well as how they spend their time. We found that teens who spent more time watching friends in person, exercising, playing sports, attending religious activities, reading or even doing schoolwork were happier However, teens who spent more time on the Internet, playing computer games, social media, texting, using video calls or watching television were less happy, that is, all activities that did not involve a screen were associated with more happiness and activities involving a screen were associated with less happiness. The differences were considerable: were teens moving more than five hours a day online twice as likely to be unhappy as those moving less than an hour a day?[4].
You’d think no one would spend “five hours a day online,” but that’s not what a CNN report shows. American children between the age of eight and twelve spend an average of nine hours on social media. [5] The consequences of his training are drastic, as most share their learning time and academic tasks with interaction on smartphones and tablets. Other research shows that children who spend more than two hours a day interacting with their mobile phones have had poor results in language and reasoning. More worrying is that MRIs have shown that children who spend more than seven hours a day have premature thinning of the cerebral cortex. [6] It will take a few more decades to see the scientific evidence of these studies, but these indications serve as warnings, should we certainly consider this?Circumstantial cause of emotional crises and psychological disorders (although there are others).
My goal with this article is not to draw conclusions or hasty solutions, but at least to arouse interest in further research into this possible cause of anxieties, crises and depressions of our adolescents and young people. I believe that every Christian is called to counsel one another?(Cl 3:16).
[1] See: https://voltemosaoevangelho. com/blog/2018/01/abordagem-poimenica-puritana-para-as-depressoes/ [2] Book: iGen: Why Today?Superconnected children grow up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy?And completely unprepared for adulthood? Others have proposed it?Generation Z? And Homelanders. Jean Twenge explains in his book why these names do not correspond to this generation on the agenda. [3] https://theconversation. com/the-mental-health-crisis-among-americas-youth-is-real-and-staggering-113239. Récupéré on 19/03/2019. [4] https://theconversation. com/what-might-explain-the-unhappiness-epidemic-90212 [5] https://edition. cnn. com/2015/11/03/health/teens-tweens-media -screen-use-report / index. html [6] https://bigthink. com/mind-brain/screen-time-nih-study-60-minutes?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1