Mental health became a capitalistic gold(mind) as corporations were able to convince the people that the people were people's problem. Whether the manipulation was you're not a bad parent, your child is a bad kid or you're child is bad because they suffer from X, and with Y can be solved, manipulation was a success. If you want to sell fast sell trauma. What this looked like was kids being kids being called bad by parents who didn't wanna be called bad by other parents. To defend their image and justify their actions they fed into this diagnosis called ADD and ADHD.
Being most modernly introduced to the world by George Frederic in the early 1900s this began to truly become a diagnosis in the late 1970s. With mental health being a taboo in these times doctors began filling more prescriptions for medication like Ritalin to whom they felt fit the description of what is known as ADD and ADHD. As time continued corporations advanced in feeding the mind of parents it wasn't their fault, but the child's. That the child needed help. Now fortunately we see today from resources like the Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia styles of education that children have a pure curiosity and interest in their environment.
Ignorant to these alternative forms of education parents only knew one system. The Mann system implemented. With no evidence of knowledge of each other, Charles Mann and Charles Darwin had similar philosophies of competition. Where Darwin's focus was of life, Mann's was in the education system. In an effort for their child to be "Best suited" or "Most successful" in the school line system, whether private or public, was to obtain the grade marks used as gauges for assumed potentials in the world. There are currently nine forms of intelligences, making the problem of the Mann system being its emphasize on logical/analytical (left brain) intelligence. If a student failed at the proposed benchmarks, he/she was considered inadequate. Neglectful of the eight others. I'm opting to skip the pharmaceutical business talk but this connected to great diagnosis and prescriptions. Wanting the best for their child or not wanting to be seen as incompetent parents, from what was most updated studies at the time, parents gave trust to the system over the child. System being trust of the teachers, principal, and counselor's words.
Fast forward we've come into an era of the opposite. From many millennials feeling spite towards the system they attempt to protect and defend the child. Many now take the word of the child over the teachers, principal, and counselors. The No Child Left Behind act of 2002 and the anti-bullying movement that began in the 2010's encouraged a generation of entitlement. Whether in or unintentionally this act and movement caused a degression in will. With little to no consequences, rewards for failures, and backing of the parents we witness a decline in mental stability, ability, and toughness. Even in intentionally competitive arenas like sports, a loss is rewarded. Because of so- children are losing valuable traits such as punctuality, creativity, self-reliance, determination, grit, problem solving, passion, self-forming opinion, intelligence, and creativity being amongst the main recognized. Because children are inexperienced in handling loss, failures, humiliation, and other polarities that build resiliency and mental stability, we witness an increase in sensitivity, entitlement, contentment, and suicide. Ultimately a lack of development in the amygdala which regulates emotions and cerebral cortex which controls reasoning.
This lack of resiliency encourages contentment oppose to seeking right answers. When faced with counters we witness cognitive dissonance expressed as anger, sorrow, and/or confusion. Rather than a willingness to accept new information one looks for ways to counter their proposed wrongfulness. If not defensive of their subjectivity we witness denial turn to tears and possibly depression. And maybe if right in their stance, lacking the ability to articulate their point or engage in debate without being overthrown by uncontrollable emotions. The child quick to submit forfeits the ability to experience the success of overcoming an obstacle which creates a positive reinforcement and momentum of confidence for the next. A doer mentality from belief in self.
Speaking on social media's impact now: this gives an open platform for those undereducated to speak under the guides of "opinion". Because "There's no such thing as a dumb question" and "Everyone's entitled to their opinion" we experience loud voices with minute (my noot) knowledge. A greater unfortunate is many do not use the internet for objective reasoning but validation. For people are able to find communities of the same interest, as stated in the previous paragraph, many are unwilling and incapable of hearing the other side let alone accepting of. Unfortunately, the I'm-right-you're-wrong mentalities eliminates the ability to grow from new information. As spoken on in the beginning of the article, as people are unwilling to accept blame, confirmation bias leaves the impressionable mind susceptible to manipulation. Lacking the ability to think for self, they follow who most validates their emotions.
Social media has become a center for trauma bonding. Those with weaker minds and fearful of speaking up look for those expressing their shared traumas. Those who feel unheard, manipulated, undervalued fail to acknowledge their inability to speak up, stand firm in thought, and prove a valuation necessary by another. They now come to social media and attach themselves to those identifying the same emotions. Figures and followers trauma bond over their inability to grow. They attract and take to those who validate that they're not the problem but their mother, father, guardian, predecessors, environment, etc. are.
Many of these pages categorize responses such as weak, scared, confused, cowardly, sad, depressed, and more as "healing". Figures on social media who are not studied in psychology speak one-sidedly on the trend of mental health creating trauma bonds with audiences. Figures encourage childlike behavior such as crying, screaming, kicking, pouting, and blaming, reaffirming to an audience healing is acting as such. This continues to feed the princess/prince syndrome stemming from "No child left behind". The lack of development in the amygdala is due to children not being demanded by authoritive figures or peers in healthy ways. I.E comprehending what and why they felt how they did in the current state when being reprimanded.
Bring back bullying.
I say this because bullying created a self-policing and regulating system. As the other systems mentioned there are pros and cons. The challenging by peers triggers survival instincts. Here I refer to Darwin's theory of evolution in an epigenetic sense. That a child will adapt to the environment and when handled from an offensive perspective increases mental toughness and stability, problem solving, adaptation, grit, self-esteem, individual thinkers, and more pass those mentioned earlier. Even if not leaders it decreases the amount of blindly following.
The healer could never grow. Similar to a bone, the bone is not growing stronger while in a cast. It is returning to form but is still weak. It's not until out the cast could the ligament begin to strengthen from exposure to weight. I'll expound on this in a separate article. As these figures' identities and audiences are built on healing, speaking on growth brings cognitive dissonance. When an identity is built on the previous adjectives categorized as healing one's responses will again typically be anger, sorrow, and/or confusion with the acceptance of those that are healed and back at ground zero. To those will grow eerie of pages solely speaking of healing and seek the educated ones teaching growth. Which begins with breaking years of false identity and beliefs. Just as the arm, is nowcapable of handling new weight.
Corporations and businesses have shown time and time again if you validate emotions, then create FOMO you can control them. Whether that's from their own discretion or getting them to be surrounded by so much of the same they feel internally pressured to fit in; they are susceptible to manipulation. The gold(mind) of mental health has made many outside the Indviduals diagnosed wealthy. It was never a trend or focus, the topic of it was. Talking about it existing brought attention from those who suffered most and ultimately used against them capitalistically. Bullying creates self-policing and regulating systems developing the ability to think for self and recognize potential threats. Leeway to bullying and encouraging competition will have a greater benefit in social, physical, emotional, and psychological development.
