Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Newsletter for May 15, 2019 Vol. #5 Issue #8
How the "teen angst" stereotype prevented me from recognizing my mental illness
An Essay from Hello Giggles
May 13, 2019 3:46 pm
On an average afternoon in the mid-2000s, you could usually find me lying on my bed and staring up at the ceiling, the gloomy tones of Bright Eyes or My Chemical Romance’s angrily pinging off the blades of my ceiling fan overhead. Maybe I’d be crying, maybe I’d be staring into space, maybe I’d be unable to will myself to stand. In many ways, I was the very picture of “teen angst.”
I wouldn’t have described myself as unhappy in high school. I had good friends. I participated enthusiastically in extracurricular activities like dance. I did well in school, and I read voraciously. I even liked hanging out with my parents. But sometimes, on long summer days when my friends were busy, or on Sunday nights after dinner, an indescribable emptiness would descend over me, like a thick black curtain. You wouldn’t have noticed a change in me. I didn’t act out, drink, do drugs, or skip school. I was a “good kid.” Besides, from what I’d learned in health class, depression was “always obvious.” It was self harm, wearing long-sleeves on hot summer days, plummeting grades, withdrawing from all social activity.
If my sadness was manageable, it couldn’t be mental illness. Teens are supposed to be moody, right?
“Yes, adolescents are in a stage of development, as are we all, and they’re going through a lot of it. But that does not mean moodiness and that does not equate to ‘turbulent years,’” explains Dr. Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, a licensed counselor whose work on teen depression has appeared in Psychology Today. “Physiologically, adolescents are going through a lot of changes…Our job as adults is to help create a growth opportunity for them as they go through those changes and not just roll our eyes and chalk it up to being adolescents, but realize that if they’re extremely moody, if we start to see behavioral changes, that’s not [just] adolescence.”
The stereotype of the angsty teen—prevalent in movies, books, and television shows as far-reaching as The Catcher in the Rye and My So-Called Life—made an impression on me. It told me that my nauseating stress over grades and my drop-of-the-hat dark moods were normal and expected of someone my age, and would be fleeting.
I remember failing to explain t0 the adults in my life how deep these feelings ran. When I attempted, I was often told to stop allowing my emotions to control me.
Media and well-meaning adults tell young people that mood swings and inexplicable sadness or anger are normal parts of adolescent development. But shrugging off someone’s complicated emotions just because they are young can be extremely harmful. I know that I fully expected to grow out of my despondence someday. But as I moved from high school to college and, eventually, the great beyond of adulthood, my sadness and anxiety didn’t dissipate.
State police prepare to crack down on Michigan's marijuana black market
A Michigan State Police unit created to crack down on unlicensed medical marijuana activities is finally preparing to target pot's black market.
The Marihuana and Tobacco Investigation Section spent roughly its first full year of existence enforcing the tobacco tax and conducting background checks on applicants applying for a state medical marijuana facility license.
Now the 40 detectives and civilian analysts across the state will begin addressing illegal marijuana operations while continuing to aid the Marijuana Regulatory Agency in the licensing process.
The promised enforcement comes none too soon for licensed marijuana businesses, which have complained about facing unfair, illegal competition. Since the state legalized recreational marijuana in November, several unlicensed facilities have sprouted up without even trying to get licensed, said Detective 1st Lt. Chris Hawkins, commander for the section.
Unlicensed facilities and others that have operated temporarily during the transition to a licensed market have caused headaches for legitimate businesses such as Green Peak Industries, one of the state’s largest licensed medical marijuana businesses.
“It’s unclear where the black market ends and where the licensed industry begins at this point,” said Joe Neller, a spokesman for Green Peak. “The state should do everything to help law enforcement understand who’s legal and licensed and who’s not.”
From unlicensed facilities to “gifted” marijuana to unsanctioned home deliveries, the State Police has its work cut out for it as the growing regulated market gains firmer footing in the shifting industry.
“It’s a little more sophisticated black market now that holds itself out as legitimate business,” Hawkins said.
The Marihuana and Tobacco Investigation Section already is working with some local prosecutors to investigate illegal operators, which Hawkins sees as an impediment to the regulated market. The group has yet to charge any individuals in large part because there wasn’t a regulated standard to which the state could hold facilities.
With more than 150 licensed medical marijuana facilities and the last of the state’s temporary facilities expected to be largely resolved by June, the section finally is delving into black market enforcement.
The section also is examining ways to stop marijuana gifting, a way to purchase recreational pot before the rules are complete for adult use and the licensed recreational market is running.
“We see businesses out there that are selling a $10 box of chocolates for $50 and with that you’re getting 2 to 3 grams of marijuana,” Hawkins said. “To say that these businesses are exploiting a loophole is giving them a little more credit than they deserve.”
Balance screen time with the rest of what the world has to offer
We can be better informed because we now have information from around the globe at our fingertips. We can more easily connect to the people we know and more easily reach the people we don’t. Letters, like news, used to travel slowly but now information is instant.
So what’s the downside? With such a glut of information, it can be hard to discern the true from the false. And social networks can put us in touch with only like-minded people, causing schisms in our society when we fail to consider others’ points of view.
The young are particularly vulnerable. A host of studies have shown an association between high uses of screens and low well-being. While associations between screen time and poor health, like lack of exercise and obesity, have been well-documented, a study published last December in “Preventive Medicine Reports” looked at the psychological effects of screen time on youth aged 2 to 17.
The researchers found that high users show less curiosity, less self-control, and less emotional stability. Twice as many high (as opposed to low) users of screens had an anxiety or depression diagnosis.
Non-users and low users did not differ in well-being. After just one hour a day, increasing amounts of time spent with electronics was correlated with progressively lower psychological health
Total screen time averaged 3 hours and 20 minutes a day and was progressively higher among older children, primarily driven by more time spent on electronic devices. The largest increase in screen time occurred between elementary school and middle school. By high school (ages 14 to 17), adolescents spent 4 hours and 35 minutes a day with screens.
The well-being of adolescents was more affected than for children, researchers found. These high users possessed twice the risk of suffering from low well-being than their counterparts who used screens an hour or less per day. Adolescents with a lot of screen time — some as high as seven hours a day — were 95 percent less likely than low users to be calm, curious, or task-focused. They also had significantly more arguments with parents.
In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced recommendations for children’s media use. The academy recommends limiting screen time to an hour a day for children 2 to 5 years old, and advises parents to watch high-quality programs with their children to help them understand what they’re seeing.
For children 6 and older, limits are to be placed on the time and type of media and it is not to “take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity and other behaviors essential to health.”
The American Academy of Physicians also advises families to designate “media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms,” and urges “ongoing communication about online citizenship and safety, including treating others with respect online and offline.”
Exposing Marijuana's Hidden Dangers
Bringing Down Binge Drinking
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About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition