"WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT HEALTH PROBLEM FACING YOUTH IN THE WORLD TODAY, AND WHY?"

This is an essay I submitted (minus the picture which is courtesy of www.someecards.com) to the 2014 Akili Youth Health Post-2015 Essay Competition. Note to self: be more focused next time!

Below it is an extra paragraph from Matt Walsh's blog that I consider a particularly eloquent and touching expression of what I took 500 words say (it was SO hard to shave it down to that. 700 would have been much easier!). I feel fortunate to have found someone more articulate and thoughtful than myself who feels the same way as I do on this issue.

"WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT HEALTH PROBLEM FACING YOUTH IN THE WORLD TODAY, AND WHY?"

By Esther Christina Walburg, age 25, Dutch, currently residing in Bosnia and Herzegovina

A few months ago I was chatting with a friend on Gmail when he told me that he has Borderline Personality Disorder. Some research into BPD and similar mental disorders brought to the forefront an issue that I'd been tossing around in my mind: do we sometimes perceive ordinary life experiences as certifiable reasons to be declared mentally ill and then get pumped full of prescription drugs?

I could make this essay very long by listing all the OCD driven acts, or CDO as I like to call them (that's OCD, but with the letters in alphabetical order – AS THEY SHOULD BE), I compulsively perform each day. I won't though, because much as I joke otherwise, these quirks do not add up to a medical condition.
Most teenagers are, at some point of their adolescence or another, rambunctious, angsty, and volatile. That's been noted ever since teenagers were teenagers. Nowadays, with the enormous breakthroughs in neuroscience, medicine and psychology, are we taking the notion that “everything is curable given the correct drug“ too far?
I'm thinking of all the chemicals that young people are required to swallow because their doctors, therapists and parents wish to “calm them“, “keep them out of depression“, “stabilize them“, etc.
Are we too quick to categorize behavior that is anything other than placid, docile and quietly cheerful as “aggression“? Or someone who steers clear of crowds and social activities as “emotionally withdrawn“? Could it be that they are just being “teens“?Perhaps we would benefit more from finding personalized solutions within ourselves with the help of our loved ones rather than via raising and lowering our hormones artificially.
In this age of individualism, where everyone is encouraged to express themselves freely without fear of judgment, should we not also focus on acknowledging that WE can overcome our personality flaws and weaknesses OURSELVES by making choices that are healthy and wise both physically and mentally?
Perhaps we should be less impulsive about dashing to our therapist or our doctor over highs and lows that maybe aren't as high or low they seem to be at that moment considering that there are statistics such as:

• Anti-depressants are basically useless for the vast majority of people who take them.
• Prescription drugs can cause helplessness, apathy, aggression, and sedation.[1]

I regularly assist someone who was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder last year. She takes a number of drugs to enable her to be “herself“ – the communicative, affectionate, outdoorsy person she was before this disorder turned her life upside down. So I'm not deriding behavioral drugs as a whole. I recognize their value and their contribution to enabling afflicted people to lead “normal“ lives. I simply think we should take a little longer to consider whether we could not achieve the same or better than what they promise via more time spent outdoors, with friends who uplift us, and with more wholesome food choices.

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[1] Dr. Peter Lind  http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/stress-and-health-dr-lind/2012/dec/20/drugs-you-take-mood-altering-drugs/ (Accessed March 2014) 

  

We’ve done a horrible thing by turning every shortcoming and every personal failure into a “clinical” issue, or a “disease” that requires surgery and medication. When we attempt to pawn our flaws off by pretending we are the victim — rather than the cause — of them, we severely diminish ourselves. We diminish ourselves by rejecting our own potential and dismissing the power of our own will. We, as human beings, possess a profound and utterly unique ability to transform and change and improve and achieve and conquer. Modern wisdom would have us reject this entirely, and when we buy into this poisonous and reductive philosophy, we reject our very humanity and spit on the essence of life itself. But we also diminish everyone around us.

We also insult the Lord Himself.

-Matt Walsh

http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/01/31/inspiring-message-of-the-day-obesity-is-not-a-disease-and-you-do-have-free-will/