The College of Psychology of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has warned this Monday that the "unstoppable" increase in mental disorders in the young population, which was initially attributed to the impact of the pandemic, is mainly due to overprotection and low tolerance to frustration.
In this regard, Tamara Cabrera, secretary of the board of the collegiate entity, explained in a statement that situations have been maintained in the youth group that are more related to family education, the school environment and the use of social networks than with the possible problems derived from the pandemic.
Regarding the origin of these disorders, Cabrera points to the education received from parents as the first determining factor because, she warns, frustration is educated.
"If I educate by giving everything, even before it is asked, I do not teach to know how to differentiate what is really needed, because everything is given to me. Therefore, when the time comes when my child wants something and does not have it, he will not have tools to support it since he has not learned strategies to deal with frustration or to learn to wait for things to happen or fight for them," he says.
In addition, the psychologist adds that "we are in a difficult social moment on many levels, so that frustration is felt", and gives as an example the excessive average grades to access university degrees, the scarce job offers and the high prices to become independent.
"All this influences that when these generations must adapt to these changes it is difficult for them to move forward, since this reality does not correspond to the one they had been living. Something that not only affects the professional-labor field, but also that of emotional relationships," he points out.
And he points out that social networks do a disservice to coexistence with frustration because they publish part of what people are or live, a part that "is not one hundred percent real" and in which only the positive is always shown, failing to encourage critical thinking many times and motivating comparisons and wanting to live certain occasions in a concrete way.
"Something that if it is not fulfilled, ends up frustrating," he says.
As a recommendation, Cabrera emphasizes that the most important thing is to educate in accompaniment, guide children and young people in each evolutionary stage teaching them to assume responsibilities, to get involved in decision-making, motivating the ability to choose and insist that if things do not turn out as they want, they have to learn to develop another way to achieve them or sometimes assume that not everything can be given in that way and look for other alternatives.
“While it is true that we have increasingly normalized asking for help, not everyone is able to do so or knows how to do so. On the other hand, there is also a part of the population that this normalization extrapolates to the belief that everything can be a mental disorder and it must be emphasized that there are situations in life that occur and that we can feel sad, unwilling or nervous in some situations without this being pathological,” he adds.
As a recommendation, the College of Psychology of Santa Cruz de Tenerife recalls the importance of teaching to ask for help and, especially, not to overprotect and educate with responsibility and emotional management.