The Psychological Toxicity of Modern Adolescence (and What We Can Do about It)

American adolescents now face a staggering burden of mental illness. It is an epidemic without precedent. An estimated 32 percent of United States teens have already experienced at least one DSM-based anxiety disorder, and over 14 percent have suffered from a major mood disorder (Merikangas et al., 2010). Their parents mirror the pattern one out of every six adults takes daily psychiatric medication (Moore & Mattison, 2017) and yet prevalence rates continue to rise relentlessly in virtually…