Quote Originally Posted by awakenedsoul View Post
I was thinking today about how many young people Adam's age that I meet today are depressed and on prescription drugs. They just aren't grounded. When you have a job you enjoy, get a good daily physical workout, have healthy sexual release, and are able to support yourself and pay your bills, you are balanced. You set goals and hopefully work towards those goals and achieve them. You have friends and romance, and you enjoy life. When I was 22, I was having the time of my life! I felt on top of the world. I was talking to my neighbor about it, and she feels that these kids have no hope. (She has two boys in their early twenties. One is in jail.) Most of them still live with their parents, so they have conflict over rules and they don't mature the way they would if they were living on their own.

I wonder how many of the young adults I meet are really emotionally disturbed. (I don't mean Adam.) I've had students in this age bracket come to my class and tell me afterwards, "I did drugs, I cut myself, I drank," and on and on... It's like they are proud of their self destructive lifestyles and want sympathy. There's just such a heaviness of self pity to them. I don't know if it's all the technology, reality t.v., or what. I was very happy and excited about life at that age. It's really a shame.

Well said awakenedsoul. I have also felt a sense of ??? from people. I'm not exactly sure what it is. Part hopeless, part powerless, certainly disconnected, quite a bit of that self-pity, etc. Your choice of the word "heaviness" was, I thought, well done. In my very limited observations I don't see this as being confined to the younger set, although I agree it is more prevalent and manifests itself in different ways there than in people with a little more life experience. It's probably a miracle that anyone can stay grounded these days. The sensory overload from media of all kinds, a near constant stream of messages telling us how wonderful life could be if we just did this or bought that, the mind numbing array of violent images and portrayals of violent acts and on and on. We should probably be thankful that the Sandy Hooks only happen once in a great while rather than monthly, or weekly...or daily.

I could not wait to get out of the house and on my own when I was a teen. Don't get me wrong, my upbringing was pure Leave it to Beaver, I was just impatient. The country was in the middle of a deep recession at that time, but (thanks to the jack of all trades mentality farm kids get) I KNEW I would find a job, and did. I was hopeful and excited. I also had skills that most 18 year olds today don't. I could operate machinery, garden, raise animals, drive trucks, read/write/speak in complete sentences, weld, hunt, fish, cook, do laundry, fix almost anything with duct tape and baling wire (the rancher's tool kit), etc. Having those basic skills gives you an incredible sense of independence. I'm not convinced mastering Halo or being an i phone guru does the same thing.

You are right about a lack of that kind of hope these days. Maybe the answer has nothing to do with hardware at all. Maybe this is really a software problem. If so, that's too bad because I don't see even the slightest chance that western society is capable of dealing with that. That really would require a kinder, gentler approach. Can you imagine pounding your fist on the table and declaring 'we need to ban depression because it KILLS people'? No sense in saying 'you can have my Wellbutrin when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers'. No room for political grandstanding or chest pounding or much of anything beyond calm, rational, gentle understanding. Simply put, we suck at that.