Children: An oppressed group.

From "Children's Freedom: A Human Rights Perspective" by Peter Gray, 02/28/19

"In fact, children today are far more deprived of liberty than they were when I was a child more than 60 years ago, or when my parents were children 90 years ago.  And children are suffering because of that deprivation.  As I’ve documented elsewhere, children today are suffering at record levels from anxiety, depression, and even suicide (Gray, 2011; 2013).   The estimated rates of Major Depressive Disorder and anxiety disorders among young people, based on analyses of standardized clinical assessment questionnaires given in unchanged form over the decades, are now roughly eight times what they were in the 1950s; and the suicide rate for school-aged children is six times what it was then.  Serious mental disorder in children has gone up in direct proportion to the decline in children’s freedom; and there is good reason to believe that the latter is a cause of the former (Gray, 2011; 2013)."

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Physicians have the highest sucide rate of any profession.

From "Remembering Ricky: Losing a friend to suicide by Andrews Wilner

"During my reading, I also learned that physicians have the highest suicide rate of any profession, with one completed suicide every day.^[3,4] That's twice the suicide rate of the general public. I don't have any intention of joining my friend, but I don't like being in a high-risk group!"

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How lies become the new truth.

What's the deal with re-cycling plastic bags?

Editor's note:

Increasingly municipalities and governments are banning plastic bags. You can make the switch yourself using paper or re-usable grocery bags. I was at Aldi's on Thursday, 02/21/19 and brought 5 paper bags at $0.07 a piece. I used them and then folded them and plan on using them again.

Now that "Eco therapy" has become a thing, perhaps a practice that would decrease guilt, and anxiety about the environment would be to switch from plastic to paper or re-usables.

FLOW by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - A summary

The four factors that contribute to flow = focus, freedom, feedback, four percent challenge.

Patricia Hasbach describes "eco-therapy" to help people with concerns about climate change.

For more information click here.

Editor's note:
One of my daughters lives in Pasadena, CA and when she visited in Western New York last September, 2018, she asked me what I knew about "ecotherapy" and whether I was helping people with their concerns about climate change.

She was visiting at a time when there were the wild fires in California. Here in Western New York, 10 miles from the south shore of Lake Ontario, people were dealing last summer, 2018,  with high lake levels which were destroying lake front property, docks, and boating harbors.

One of the things not dealt with in the short interview above is the symptom of "impending doom" that many people struggling with depression experience. Colloquially, this is the "sky is falling" phenomenon of the Chicken Little children's book.

In addition, one can speculate about the general level of anxiety of the population which gets focused on border walls and nationalism as we are on the brink of climate migration which is predicted to increase in the next 50 years in significant ways.

The climate denial of Republicans in our Federal and State governments adds further anxiety and angst to a potentially victimized population who believes that their leaders are not working for their longer term best interests on the planet.

To what extent do these factors contribute to anxiety, depression, substance abuse and the rise of suicidal behaviors?

"Ecotherapy" is not a modality of treatment per se, but it is an attempt to address the contributions of climate change in the course of therapy for other diagnosed psychiatric disorders.

American Psychological Association takes position against spanking

The American Psychological Association passes a resolution against spanking.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the American Psychological Association recognizes that scientific evidence demonstrates the negative effects of physical discipline of children by caregivers and thereby recommends that caregivers use alternative forms of discipline that are associated with more positive outcomes for children.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the APA engage in competency based public awareness, education and accessible outreach activities to increase public knowledge about the effects of physical discipline on children and knowledge regarding alternative forms of discipline and their effectiveness and outcomes for children and parents.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the APA engage in promoting culturally responsive professional training and accessible continuing education activities regarding alternative discipline strategies and their effectiveness.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the APA support funding for research in the U.S. and other countries on: • The factors that underlie parents’ supportive attitudes about physical discipline; • The factors that lead parents to rely on physical discipline; • Differences in cultural understanding and values, including socially shared beliefs and norms of practice related to the use of physical discipline; • The factors that promote parents’ best practices in supporting their children, and in developing positive parent-child relationships with their children; and • Interventions that may help to diminish parental reliance on physical discipline and enhance parents’ access to culturally sensitive alternative approaches.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the APA encourage efforts to increase access to positive parenting supports for underserved groups.

For more click here.