Depression/Suicidal Thoughts Double in American Youth in One Decade

The music-driven, entertainment-focused, me-first American pop culture is a devouring monster. A new study from the American Psychological Association has found that “the percentage of young Americans with mental health disorders has more than doubled over the past decade” (“Depression and suicidal thoughts have doubled,” Fox News, Mar. 16, 2019). That’s a huge increase. These “disorders” include major depression, suicidal thoughts, and attempted suicide. The study analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. I suggest that some of the causes are an over-abundance of leisure; lack of discipline; addiction to social media, pornography, and multi-player online video games; psychotic music; the legalization of marijuana; the rejection of a biblical worldview and the acceptance of nihilistic philosophies, the disappearance of wholesome, winsome heroes from the national spotlight; and the mainstream media’s perpetual harping against traditional America and everything that was held as good and right by the founders, for starters. Who wouldn’t be depressed! The only solution is to know the true God through Jesus Christ, who has “not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7), and to walk as pilgrims who refuse to be conformed to this world system and its foolish ways, and to use the power of the Word of God to purify the mind. “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

​(Friday Church News Notes, March 22, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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