Shared Links (weekly) Nov. 10, 2024
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I feel like this is something that has gotten continuously worse over the years too. Kids who never get to just play, but are fully booked with one after-school activity after another. Teens are under constant pressure to spend their time doing things that look good on college applications. College-aged young adults are about filling out the resume or getting into the best graduate school programs, only to graduate into jobs that expect them to always be on call, to learn and grow themselves on their own time, all while social media culture tells them they should also have a side-hustle or three.
Having fun is time that could be spent on any of these accomplishments.
I’d flip that around. What’s the point of all of those accomplishments if you never have any fun?
What was obvious to me when reading the list was that most, not all, of the counties without a shortage of mental health resources were relatively suburban. They offer numerous advantages compared to urban and rural areas. Good schools, safe neighborhoods, access to healthcare of all kinds, etc. If you win the zip code lottery and find yourself born into one of these areas, there’s a fairly good chance that mental healthcare will be available for you if needed.
The Invisible Youth Network is an organization that is trying to reach the estimated 1.5 homeless children in America, with a focus on those who are runaways and victims of child abuse. Recently, the director of their Department of Child Abuse Services, Wayneho Kam, sent me an email asking if I could try to help…
This is why I harp on this quite a bit. We lose people to depression and mental health struggles when they are disconnected from the people in their lives. Our best prevention is to remain connected, yet it’s become so easy today to be disconnected from each other. (I am perhaps more guilty of this than most, I admit. I should spend more time taking action on the tips in this article too.)