This was a story which appeared in Deutsche Welle this week, and I pondered over it for a while.
So what they report, from a study by DAK (the insurance company) is that roughly a quarter of the kid-population in Germany suffers from mental illness. Yep, one in four.
A legit survey? What they looked at....was actual data from their customer base for 2016/2017. So it's not imagined or what-if questions....it's actual bill data.
The issues? It's not that clear. A high percentage (24-percent) had what they called psychological anomalies, which could be a hundred different things at work. Some (in the 2-percent range) were depression related. Roughly the same number came up for anxiety or panic attacks.
So the question is....is there a serious problem brewing here?
In the old German village I lived in....one of the kids that my son associated with in school was diagnosed as an alcoholic by age thirteen. After about a year with their routine programs failing, the kid got sent off for six months to some rural valley in Finland. That apparently worked. I looked the neighborhood....it was a quiet village, no big issues but I might suggest that 10 percent of the kids were a bit 'nutty'.
I do agree....being a German involves regimented lifestyles and rules (lots of them). Maybe there is a stress factor that kicks in.
But I suspect if you went to most German adults and did profiles on them....roughly the same number (25-percent) would show up as psychological issues. Maybe this isn't that big of an issue then.
I think if you zoom back you'll see this as a worldwide problem, and it'll coincide with the prevalence of smartphones and social media use.
ReplyDeleteThere's been some fascinating data coming out of the UK in this field, showing not necessarily a direct link, but an incredibly strong correlation between the two. i.e. closer to the correlation of cigarettes to lung cancer, than the correlation of red meat to mortality.