https://blogs.mercola.com:443/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2020/11/21/mental-health-er-visits-increase-31-for-teens-during-pandemic.aspxThe pandemic is creating havoc with the mental health of children. In the year of the worldwide pandemic, the CDC reports that mental health-related emergency room visits in the U.S. increased 31% for children between the ages of 12 and 17 from MarchenCommunityServer 2008.5 SP1 (Debug Build: 31106.3070)https://blogs.mercola.com:443/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2020/11/21/mental-health-er-visits-increase-31-for-teens-during-pandemic.aspx?ShowAllComments=True#104059011/21/2020 2:45:43 AM24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:1040590Almond<p>Why and how have we raised a generation of young people without coping skills? Expectant of safe spaces and politically-correct speech? Never fought a bully on the playground. No role models? Were they dropped in a cabbage patch?</p> <p>All that has been asked of us is to stay home and wear a mask in public. Unless you enter private property (buildings), even that is voluntary in many places. There is so much an individual can do to stay healthy, mentally and physically, if they are willing to take responsibility.</p> <p>Previous generations have been thru much worse. How many suffered thru the Flu Epidemic of 1918 when they could become orphans in 12 hours--dead bodies stacked in streets? Or the Depression and Dust Bowl, standing in soup lines for a meal a day? How many got parents to sign for them so they could join the military and go fight when they were under age and America was attacked at Pearl Harbor? (Not enough rifles available, so they trained with wooden ones.) Surely being shot at must have been a bit stressful? Orphans arriving from liberated countries. How many teens volunteered in hospitals and worked in factories in WWII? When parents had to be away from home, many young teens would run the entire farm by themselves--maybe a 12 and 15-year old for weeks at a time. In the early days of settlement, wealthier families would hire a couple teenage boys to build them a cabin on their claim from local materials. The boys would also hunt, fish and forage their own food. Settlers burying their loved ones on the trail. Epidemics of typhoid, cholera, smallpox, etc. What about the Cherokee Trail of Tears--was that easy? Some of those teenage mothers walked with their babies strapped to their backs. How many teenagers crossed the ocean to America at a young age, all by themselves, as indentured servants--my grandmother, age 15? Young people assumed adult responsibilities at a much younger age. I recall girls who left school after 8th grade graduation and went to work.</p>