Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the MindWhale podcast, where we discuss kids and teens mental health, mood, and behavior. I'm Nicholas Hundley, a psychiatric mental health nurse, a father of four kids, a nutritionist, and a biochemist. Today I'm going to talk about the magnitude of the mental health crisis in kids and teens. I'm going to share some examples of kids' mood and behavior issues that parents may be concerned about. And I'm also going to dive deep into an actual overview of the statistics behind the increasing rates of anxiety, depression, autism, ADHD, suicide, and substance abuse among our kids and teens. It really is a crisis.
[00:00:44] But, before I dive into that, I want to explain a little bit about why I'm doing this podcast. Primarily it's because I see a huge need for help in our kids and teenagers. There is a crisis of anxiety and depression, [00:01:00] autism, ADHD, and these mental health concerns, and I feel like we as parents can stem this tide. To put it bluntly, the powers that be in society have not been able to stem the tide, and I think that we as parents need to make a grassroots effort to help our children. There's a lot of pain and suffering occurring in the world. Much of it is right here at home. It may be unseen or it may be seen, but we really need to do things to make a difference. And that's what I hope this podcast will do.
[00:01:31] The MindWhale podcast is aimed at helping parents help kids and teens with their mental health and mood and behavior. This may be kids who are simply struggling with emotions or perhaps have behavior issues all the way to kids and teens with larger issues.
[00:01:49] I am particularly passionate about this topic because when I was a child and a teenager, I myself had pretty severe anxiety and depression. Several times I [00:02:00] contemplated suicide because of the intense pain. For me, I have that personal relationship to this issue. I think that it's important that I share what I've learned and also bring other experts onto the podcast so that we can understand what we can do to help our kids. Some examples of mood and behavior issues that parents might see in their kids are things like a child who loses their temper easily, or lashes out physically, a child who may be extremely afraid of separation from their parents, or they may be afraid of interacting with others, and it's interfering with their life. A child who has a hard time sleeping, or who wakes up in the night frequently, or has a hard time falling asleep. It may be a teenager who is so depressed, they find it hard to go to school. Insomnia affects about 20 to 30 percent of kids, according to a recent study. Insomnia is one of the manifestations of mental health issues that our kids are facing.
[00:02:58] Now, let's get [00:03:00] into the actual rates of diagnosed mental illness. We're going to start with a broad overview and then we'll talk about anxiety and depression. Why am I talking about diagnosed mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and autism at the same time that I'm talking about parenting and a child's mood and behavior? The reason is that there's a spectrum of severity when it comes to mental health, mood, and behavior. And the same body, mind, spirit, also known as physiological, psychological, and spiritual factors, can affect an otherwise healthy child's mood and behavior in the same way that it affects people with a diagnosed mental illness.
[00:03:40] So, the same things that affect the diagnosis of a mental illness from a specialist or a health professional are the same things that can affect anyone's mental health. There are stressors of the body, stressors of the mind, stressors of the spirit that can manifest in mood changes, behavior [00:04:00] changes, and depending on the severity or the types of those stressors in each of those areas, it may manifest as a diagnosed illness, or it may manifest as a bad day.
[00:04:10] Either way, it's the same factors and in future episodes, I'm going to talk more about what those factors are, but today I'm going to focus more on the magnitude of the mental illness crisis that we're experiencing.
[00:04:22] So let me dive into the statistics right now. According to the CDC People aged 18 to 25 had a 40 percent increase in mental illness between the years 2008 and 2017.
[00:04:36] That means there was almost a 50 percent increase in a decade in overall mental illness in kids. And anxiety disorders are the most common. We saw a 30 percent increase in anxiety disorders in teenagers within a decade between 2008 and 2018. We saw an astounding 84 percent increase, that's almost a doubling, of anxiety in 18 to [00:05:00] 25 year olds.
[00:05:01] Now let's talk about depression. In 2021, the CDC polled high schoolers and found that An astounding 42 percent of high schoolers reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Almost 60 percent of female students experience these feelings as well. So, females are especially hard hit by depression.
[00:05:25] Nearly 1 in 3 girls seriously considered suicide. And nearly 1 out of 4 teenagers made a suicide plan. 13 percent of high schoolers say they've attempted suicide in the last year. This is really astounding, as I've said a couple of times already, because these are really large numbers. That's a lot of kids attempting suicide. That's a lot of kids in a lot of pain. Almost half of high schoolers saying that they have persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness? This is pretty bad, but I do believe there's a lot that we can do as parents, [00:06:00] and so I, I want this to be empowering. Continuing on with the statistics. Between 2006 and 2017, or about a decade, there was a 68 percent increase in depression diagnosis in 12 to 17 year olds, and a 49 percent increase in 18 to 25 year olds. 45,000 people die every year by suicide in the U. S. A. And there are 30 attempts at suicide for every success. Between 2009 and 2016, or about 7 years, there was an increase of 30 percent in suicide rate. So called "deaths of despair," which are suicide, alcohol and drug deaths doubled between 1999 and 2017, so about 18 years. So, we are in an epidemic, we are in a crisis of mental health.
[00:06:51] These are the more common mental health issues. Anxiety, depression, even suicide, unfortunately, and substance abuse, are all [00:07:00] on the rise. However, there is a spectrum of serious mental illness, and I hinted at it before when I talked about the relationship between a child's everyday mood and behavior as compared to a diagnosed mental illness.
[00:07:12] What I mean by a spectrum of serious mental illness is that anxiety and depression are thought of as different from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism. There's a discussion about the difference between a biological disorder within the brain or the nervous system that's causing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or autism as compared to something that is considered more psychological, like anxiety and depression.
[00:07:38] I'm going to talk about how the lines between these distinctions are blurring with further research. For example, anxiety and depression definitely do have a biological basis that is measurable in a lot of ways. We'll talk more about that in the podcast because a big thing I'm going to discuss in future episodes is the concept of brain health.
[00:07:57] There are a lot of different stressors to [00:08:00] brain health, and it's important that we as parents know some of those common stressors at the physiological, biological level, or at the psychological or spiritual level. So again, emphasizing that triune concept of body, mind, and spirit and categorizing stressors in each of those categories. But I'll talk more about that in future episodes.
[00:08:20] Serious mental illness has increased as well. Between 2008 and 2017 we've seen a 21 percent increase in serious mental illness in those over 25 years old. In the same time frame, we've seen a doubling or a 100 percent increase in serious mental illness in those aged 18 to 25.
[00:08:42] Again, that's only about 9 years, a doubling of serious mental illness. ADHD has increased 41 percent in children aged 4 to 17 between 2003 and 2012. So again, about 10 years.
[00:08:57] There's been a huge controversy [00:09:00] over the decades about how much the actual autism rate is increasing, versus diagnosed more and more. But let me just first start , with the statistics on autism. So autism was first recognized in 1911 and in 1940's. , a man named Leo Kanner started describing it in more detail.
[00:09:19] Before 1990, autism wasn't part of the United States Inclusion Criteria for Disabilities and Childhood Education. I would take that as an indicator that it probably wasn't that common before 1990. But in 2000, the rate of autism was 1 in 150 and then in 2014, the rate was 1 in 59. In 2020 the rate of autism was 1 in 36.
[00:09:46] So that's about a 400 percent increase or a quadrupling of the rate in 20 years. There's a huge debate about whether or not that is simply because of increased diagnosis. My opinion [00:10:00] is it's pretty absurd to call it all increased diagnosis because, even in my own lifetime, I've noticed a difference in the amount of kids who have autism and who are on the autism spectrum. It's sad, but it's something that I think we need to talk about because more and more research is identifying specific environmental contributors to the increase. The mainstream narrative is that they don't know why it's increasing. It's probably just increased diagnosis and changes in governmental regulations and things like that. In the meantime, there are many research studies showing associations between the food supply, environmental factors like environmental pollutants, including air pollution and endocrine disruptors and increased rates of autism.
[00:10:45] So , I don't think there's any one cause of autism. I do think there are many contributors that converge to increase a person's chance. Genetics is involved, but according to the latest research, genetics is not as involved as [00:11:00] we used to think. Genetics is a complicated topic, and one that I'll discuss later, but it's mostly an environmental concern, it's not a genetic concern.
[00:11:09] If autism continues to increase at the rate that it's going, one in ten boys will have autism in ten years, in 2033. So I believe autism is the canary in the coal mine. Autism has many of the same physiological factors as all the other mental illnesses, including anxiety and depression.
[00:11:26] But of course, autism is unique and it's more severe. What I mean by autism as canary in the coal mine is these kids who are developing autism, are experiencing a larger convergence of these factors. And as parents and as a society, we need to stem this tide.
[00:11:45] It's up to us because the government is trying to, in a way, say that it really isn't a problem. By asserting that there's not a problem, they're essentially ignoring the problem in a lot of ways. Because we do need to get at the [00:12:00] root causes, and scientifically we do have a lot of root causes for this. They're just not being expounded upon as much as they should.
[00:12:08] Okay, bipolar disorder diagnosis is increasing as well. Between about 4 percent and 1. 6 percent of the population was diagnosed with bipolar between 1970 and 2000. But in the early 2000s there was a diagnosis criteria change and the diagnosis increased to 4 to 7%.
[00:12:30] In my opinion, that one seems more, clearly like the diagnosis increase was due to changes in diagnostic criteria. But at the same time, bipolar diagnosis was nearly non existent in children and adolescents prior to 1994, but it's common now.
[00:12:46] So I've talked about numbers and statistics and diagnoses, but I wanna talk about what it's like to actually be a person who experiences these problems, to bring more of a subjective [00:13:00] experience to it. I can't do it justice, because I have my experience of anxiety and depression, but I know how trapped one can feel and how hopeless one can feel. I really want to bring this home that your child or your teen, and they may even be hiding it because there is still a stigma about mental health as though we are supposed to generally feel good or there's something wrong with us if we have one of these diagnoses, or if we experience these things.
[00:13:29] I want to emphasize that there is nothing wrong with you, or anyone, or your child. Of course, we do want people to have a good experience of life. And so that's why we want to address it. Not to make these people bad or judge them for being depressed or having anxiety. We want to help relieve the emotional burden.
[00:13:52] My personal experience with depression was a severe hopelessness, difficulty waking up in the morning, difficulty [00:14:00] doing day to day tasks. I also had anxiety and severe social anxiety, and so it was really hard for me to make friends, which compounded my stress because I wanted to have friends and have that relational experience, but I found it hard to create that.
[00:14:17] When a child develops depression or anxiety or autism or ADHD, it's associated with long term problems as well. A person who grows up and has depression is going to have a harder time being successful in school and being successful in career and being successful in relationships.
[00:14:37] The same thing goes for anxiety. Same thing goes for ADHD and autism. Autism is associated with a host of medical and mental health concerns in the child. For example, ADHD affects about 30 60 percent of children with autism, and more than half of children with autism have chronic sleep problems. And then [00:15:00] 11 to 40 percent people with autism have anxiety disorders. One third of people with autism have epilepsy. And the schizophrenia rate is between 4 and 35 times higher in adults who have autism. About a third of children with ASD, or the autism spectrum, have an intellectual disability, and 25 30 percent are non verbal or minimally verbal. of course, for the parents, a child with severe autism represents a lot of stress. The child may exhibit self injurious behaviors or may bolt from the home or from caregivers. Drowning is an unfortunately common side effect of kids bolting from the house. And then, of course, there's a financial burden of all of these things because of the lost productivity, but also because of the increased need for treatment. For example, autism costs about 60, 000 a year throughout childhood.
[00:15:55] That's a lot for, a family to have to burden and medical expenditures go [00:16:00] up for children and teens with ASD. They're about four to six times higher.
[00:16:05] Now that I've shared the extent of the increase in mental illness and how we're in an epidemic and a crisis of this and with our kids and teens, I want to talk briefly about what's causing it and what the solution might be.
[00:16:19] First of all, I want to say that these aren't a moral failing. It's not parents failing. It's not kids failing. It's the broader society is failing us and we as parents need to actually come in and make a change.
[00:16:33] Again, I also mentioned earlier that there are body, mind, and spirit contributors, and I think this is a really good paradigm to look at it through because psychology is unique in the fact that our mood and behavior is based on and affected by so many factors, in different categories and different levels.
[00:16:54] These factors converge on a person's psychology. There are [00:17:00] bodily physical factors that are contributing to all of these types of mental illnesses. These are environmental things like food supply and environmental toxins and things like that. So these are physiological factors. Genetics would be categorized within body as well.
[00:17:18] And then mental factors would be the person's thought processes and their stress reactivity, beliefs, traumas, things like that. Also sociology comes into play there. So a person's history of trauma, their family dynamics, bullying at school. These things could be categorized into the mind aspect.
[00:17:41] The third aspect of body, mind, and spirit is spirit. Spirituality brings a sense of purpose to a person, also brings a sense of hope. It brings a sense of transcendence beyond just the individual. And this sense of transcendence is important because when a [00:18:00] person is in the depths of depression, and they see no way out personally, that spiritual aspect can bring hope and faith that things will get better. And that is important, because when someone is in the depths of despair, in depression, suicidal, emotions and behaviors and thoughts become distorted to the point where the person will not see a way out. And they will feel like it is hopeless. A sense of spirituality will bring that person hope. For example, Nina Simone, a famous jazz singer, who experienced pretty severe depression, said that, "What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a matter of keeping myself together until they did."
[00:18:45] I want to point out that there's complex contributors to this. I'm not going to tell you that there's one solution that's going to fix everyone's problems. If some particular thing helped some particular [00:19:00] person through their particular mental diagnosis or mood or behavior problems, then of course they are going to promote that as having helped them.
[00:19:09] And while one thing helps one person, it's definitely not guaranteed to help another person. Because these body mind spirit contributors are very complex and affecting different people in different ways.
[00:19:23] I am going to tease out a lot of these causes and contributors in future episodes and talk about specific diagnoses, talk about specific behaviors and what contributes to them, and my intention is that in time you will be able to get a better idea of what you can do as a parent to help your child. I am also going to be developing courses for parents.
[00:19:46] So this is just the tip of the iceberg. . I encourage you to follow this podcast, contact me, ask me questions. I am more than happy to interact with you. Thank you for [00:20:00] visiting!
