The mental health of French children is in danger. According to a recent study, around 20% of children suffer from psychological disorders, a figure that has been steadily increasing for several years. Specialists are seeing an increase in child psychiatry consultations and requests for psychological help. The latest on this subject in our program “La Santé en Questions” with two psychiatrists, Professor Amine Benyamina and Dr. Denis Mathieu.
Editorial
“Joy of life, carefreeness, confidence in the future, this is what we have long associated with the word “youth”, a blessed time that we regretted leaving as we got older. Crash, today’s young people are feeling down! They are perhaps even those who are having the worst time in an era that spares them nothing from the worries and anxieties of everyday life. As an illustration of this phenomenon, a study carried out last March by the University of Bordeaux revealed that 41% of students have depressive syndromes and that for 21% the deterioration in their mental health went so far as to give rise to suicidal thoughts!
But what happened to get to this point? Yes, there was the health crisis with all the fears it brought, the forced breaks from social life, the deterioration of living conditions. But this is probably more of a symptom of the malaise of young people than its primary cause.
A shake-up of benchmarks
Covid or no covid, it is indeed our entire era that generates its share of facts and messages that weigh on the morale of young people: a planet in danger threatened by climate change, a geopolitical context that triggers conflicts that are coming closer to our borders or that are invited into the fractures of our society, the threat of social insecurity, the rise of violence, of insecurity, an increasingly strong pressure to find one’s place tomorrow in a complex world where certain societal and moral benchmarks have been disrupted, this is a heavy burden to bear.
Making youth rhyme with hope
Should we despair? In his general policy statement, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal presented the mental health of young people as “a major cause of government action”. That was without taking into account the vagaries of political life! But no one can resign themselves to the fact that an age group that will build the future is condemned to depression, to consuming substances that are the worst of false friends or to getting dizzy in front of screens. With Professor Amine Benyamina, psychiatrist and author of a report submitted to the President of the Republic on young people and screens, and his colleague, also a psychiatrist, Dr. Denis Mathieu, the program “La Santé en Questions” discusses solutions. To try to make youth rhyme with hope again.
What to remember from the program “mental health of French children, a state of emergency”
The observation:
Pr Amine Benyamina : “We are talking about serious things, suicide attempts, successful suicides, self-mutilation among young people aged 10 or 13.”
Dr. Denis Mathieu : “Demand for child care is exploding; with the health crisis, we have seen the emergence of ‘Covid children’, those whose first moments of life took place in a particular environment, with effects on learning and relationships with others; and then with this crisis, the aspiration to a common ideal has been erased, it has characterized people into subgroups. Parents themselves have lost some of their illusions and no longer know what model to give their children for their quest for happiness.”
Loss of bearings:
Pr Amine Benyamina : “The status of the child in our society has changed, there is no more space for children who are perceived as those who disturb the freedom and enjoyment of parents, we must rethink their place in society.”
Dr. Denis Mathieu : “Parents are disoriented, what is disappearing is the common narrative, the continuity of history, an arrow of time that was the same for everyone and that parents left to the school the role of transmitting.”
The role of screens:
Pr Amine Benyamina : “Some online content is very violent. The offer must be regulated at the French, European and global level and France is at the origin of important texts that make it possible to force GAFAM to put their house in order. And in the report submitted on this subject to the President of the Republic, we propose better information for parents, a guide rather than a law, with simple rules such as no screens before the age of 3, no telephone before the age of 6 and no access to social networks before the age of 15.”
Concerns about the future, eco-anxiety:
Dr. Denis Mathieu : “Regarding young people’s anxiety about the future, it is the question of the meaning of life. With Covid, many people realized that they had a job whose social utility was low and saw that they could not be in a group to work when work had until now had a role of socialization. And on these subjects as on the future of the planet, we adults are responsible for what is happening today and our children will experience it as an injustice.
Pr Amine Benyamina : “Young people realize that they are going to inherit a planet that is sick, but they will know how to find a solution, they are already more experienced in ecological actions, they even have an educational role to play on these subjects with regard to their parents.”
Youth care:
Pr Amine Benyamina: “There is a lack of clinical research in France on the mental health of young people, we are on something new and we need to establish methodological rules. This results, for example, in there being no identification of suffering in the school environment, National Education would need these benchmarks.”
“Furthermore, parents should not hesitate to consult when there are warning signs, isolation, a change in work rhythm, sleep disorders; family doctors are best equipped to detect mental health disorders provided they know how to take a step back from somatic manifestations.”
