Lost generations, Kate Bush, and proper hygiene
Also forest fires.
We’re all going to come out of covid with some sort of damage. Because it’s trauma and trauma messes people up. That’s what I think.
I’m beginning to think also, though, that the late teens early twenties generation is going to be the one that is going to be the most messed up now and for a long time to come. I think they’re the ones that are most at risk for being a lost generation. They’re the ones in whose eyes we will see the pandemic forever.
A new survey talked to almost 17,000 students in 21 different countries about how they see the future. Short answer: DIMLY.
Seventy-five percent of American students surveyed said their mental health had suffered due to the pandemic, second only to Brazil (76 percent) and similar to the percentage of Canadian students who said the same (73 percent). Worldwide, across the nearly two dozen countries where students were surveyed, 56 percent of students said their mental health had suffered during the pandemic.
Among American students, 91 percent said their stress and anxiety had increased during the COVID pandemic, 30 percent said they’d sought help for mental health, 26 percent said they’d considered suicide, 12 percent said they’d self-harmed and 5 percent said they’d attempted suicide.
Russia and China seem to both fare pretty well in terms of student mental health. Is it because a pandemic is a particularly unpleasant time to live in a capitalist society? Or is it because someone is making numbers out to be different than they are? I do not know.
I don’t live in the world of Tik Tok because your youth culture frightens and confuses me. I’m just a caveman.
My friend Kelsey tells me I really need to get on it but in a recent conversation we had she used the phrase “Doctor Kojo from Tik Tok” and I felt like I was in a Richard Scarry or Dr. Seuss book.
Still, maybe I should find a way in because apparently depression Tik Tok is really a thing. Particularly depression videos that encourage good hygiene, Yahoo says so and my 90s internet brain says to listen to Yahoo.
https://www.tiktok.com/@lizzieelulu/video/6920949611528031490 - I can’t figure out how to embed this in Substack.
The whole thing about handing over videos of my deepest vulnerabilities to the Chinese government does worry me a bit.
Music is the goddamn best, you guys. )That’s Big Boi from Outkast.)
Fighting wildfires can mess up a person’s mental health, says an NPR story. And it makes perfect sense. You got this seemingly uncontrollable force and it’s destroying everything as it goes. It can destroy you, the person tasked to fight it and there will be more of these fires all the time going forward. How can it not mess you up?
Firefighters are more likely to die from suicide than in the line of duty, according to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, a nonprofit that tracks first responder suicides in the U.S. and offers support to their families. Depression, addiction, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder aren't uncommon. At times, the symptoms reveal themselves during fire season. More often, it's in the weeks and months after the smoke has cleared.
I have a very dear friend whom I’ve known since high school. He spent some time on fire crews in the summer during college and after his first summer doing it he reported witnessing a tree explode. The fire came down with such speed and force and heat, that a tree in the way didn’t burn, it blew up. Which is an amazing thing to witness, I’m sure, because I heard it second hand and it stayed with me. But it must also feel like your own life is without much meaning.
Someone made a graphic!
