Teenage stress and mental illness!

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Grandad
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Teenage stress and mental illness!

Post by Grandad »

Teenage stress and mental illness: Both Horus and Mad Dilys have told us recently that their respective grandsons achieved very credititable A*'s in their GCSE examinations. Congratulations and well done to both of them. That can only be attained by hard work both in class and in pre-exam preparation.
Sadly we hear of many teenagers who do not cope so well with their studies often resulting in stress, mental illness and even in rare cases, suicide.
I didn't take O levels before leaving school and actually left a few days after my 15th birthday with nothing to show for my education other than better than average school reports.
I got into serious study when an apprentice and later in further education for specific qualifications. However, I appreciate that I was in and beyond my teens when I got down to serious study BUT I do not recall being stressed or anxious during that time.
So I am asking what are the reasons for this dramatic increase in teenage stress and anxiety. Is it that social media has become such a big part of their lives at the expense of dedicated study? Is there a lack of parental guidance and encouragement? Is there too much freedom for teenagers these days?
Some can succeed like Horus and Mad Dilys's grandsons but a majority fall behind. I don't remember the figure but in the recent results I believe only about 5% got a top grade A* in at least one subject.
What are your views folks and how do you remember your student days and taking examinations?


:gg:
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Re: Teenage stress and mental illness!

Post by Mad Dilys »

I wanted to be a Veterinary Surgeon - as I discovered that I couldn't be the same kind of sailor as my Grandfather. I've never had exam nerves but I surprised everyone and passed the 11+ with no problem. We lived in a very rural area and I couldn't travel the twice a day hour long bus journey every day to Grammar School, so along with two of my friends from primary school we became weekly boarders. That was fine, we had a regimented life but study had no distractions - no TV virtually no radio as the set in the common room only received the Home Service and Mrs. Doyle's vacuum cleaner. ( Mrs. Doyle attended to all the cleaning) We had one hour of freedom within the bounds of the house and garden before High Tea. Then supervised homework and after we had finished we had to show our efforts to the supervising teacher, who made no comment.

When I was 13 years old we moved much closer to the school. I missed the company of my friends and both my parents worked shifts - Dad was a policeman and Mum was a nurse. My work started to suffer when I was further split from my close friends after 2 years and each of us was put into a "stream" we didn't want. I wanted Science and got Domestic Science. One friend who wanted my course later became a chef in spite of being put in the Languages stream - the friend who wanted Languages got Science which was no asset at all to her. All of us became rebellious and indifferent to study - just couldn't wait to leave that dreadful school.

When I was 16 yrs and planning on going to 6th form college and then University my father suddenly died. My mother had a nervous breakdown and my plans were shelved/ditched. At my Mother's behest I went straight to commercial college where I did very well actually. I suggested Art School but was clearly told by my older sister how selfish I was, so my formal Education came to an end.

My informal education hasn't stopped since then and I hope it never does. :up


I think the general problem with life an general and education in particular is that there is now too much choice.
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Re: Teenage stress and mental illness!

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Life for me as a teen was relatively un-stressful. I had chores to do, animals to look after and studies to complete plus factor in a part time job but all was relatively straight forward. I put in long hours but so did everybody else and life was manageable. I don't think peer pressure ever bothered me much however I also don't think in my day there was much peer pressure. I never felt forced to conform or do something I didn't really feel inclined to do.

Nowadays I think kids are exposed to way more than I ever was and I think there is lots more forced conformity in all realms of life from clothes to music to shows to how you must be thinking, feeling, acting etc. I think through the exposure to and the pressures of Media there are expectations and parameters set and everybody is aware of them unlike my day when I couldn't have really told you what was the 'in' thinking or style or fashion or expectation.

Even in the realm of are you male or female there is way way way way way too much confusion which I believe is making children and teens anxious as they want to 'fit' and be 'themself' except they don't know what that is. Now it is normal to see 2 men kissing or 2 women making out along with all the regular sex & violence combined with extreme graphics so I have no doubt this all adds to extreme angst which I believe leads to mental disorders. Not too sure all the additives in our food isn't also contributing too. Add into all of the rapid speed at which thinking and things change today is also its own type of crazy-making.

In my day when a new trend came in it wasn't an over night thing. It took a while to hear of it, think on it, experience it etc but now what was Black in the morning is now pure white by noon and back to black again by evening. All hard to wrap your head around and think about.
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Re: Teenage stress and mental illness!

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I forgot to add in that in my day it was expected and encouraged that I be me. If you could think outside the box that was valued and encouraged and actually almost everybody was encouraged to excel and explore and be the best they could be.

Now it seems to me that conformity is encouraged. Individualism is totally supressed. You dare not have an independent thought or speak out about whatever it is you might believe in because not only will be you put down you'll be shouted down, maligned, belittled and possibly even physically attacked. This newest latest trend of immediately shouting down others is extremely dangerous and it definitely isn't going to help advance humanity at all. It has to be very confusing if you're thinking and seeing one thing yet your entire peer culture totally dis-allows you to state your mind or advance your reasons for your thoughts.
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