Paula Byrne: evaluation

Transcript context

…Do you think there’s evidence of any kind of mental health crisis in the US today? Maybe only with people’s children, but I see some of these parents with teenagers or children, say, in their 20s; I hear of many more issues than I would’ve, say, 15 years ago. Maybe people just talk about it more. This, to me, is notable. Do you agree or find the same? I do agree. My favorite group, apart from couples, are teenagers. They’re the population I always wanted to work with in therapy. I’m fascinated by teenagers. I love them. They’re hilarious. They are just great. I’m shocked by how many teenagers are seriously depressed. I’m seeing 11-year-olds with depression, 12-year-olds with depression, 13-year-olds with depression, and that’s something that I think is new and just the sense in which — and I’m not going to blame social media because I think social media’s fantastic — but the pressure young women, particularly, I noticed in therapy, are under to that cult of perfection. And also, when you’re bullied, there’s no escape. I can remember being bullied, and I was like, “At least you’d go home, and then your parents will be nice to you, and it’d be fine. Your siblings would just — you’d laugh it off,” but there’s no escape. There is no escape at all. I love that population. I think there is a huge mental health crisis. However way you cut it, there really, really is. The sad thing is that — I’m a family therapist, so I really love families. I love getting families in a room because you can’t just take one person’s perspective. Everyone has a different perspective. Making families stronger, I think therapy is just so brilliant and important for all families in order to connect. That’s the E. M. Forster thing, isn’t it? “Only connect.” I’ve been really scared by the mental health crisis amongst young people, particularly in America. I’ve seen some pretty shocking stuff, I can tell you. Why do you think it’s gotten worse? Because I don’t know.…

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