Opinion: New recommendations for screening anxiety in children may be beneficial in reducing youth suicide rates. The internet disagrees, though, and may prevent children from getting necessary help.
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My head is racing. There are 100 thoughts all at once, but I can’t focus on a single one. My professor is explaining an assignment. I can see it on the board. There’s no sound though. I can’t hear my professor’s voice, only my own heartbeat pounding in my ears. My palms are lined with sweat and my legs are uncontrollably shaking. I need to get out of here. I pull myself to my feet and drag my backpack past the row of students out the door. I’m not sure where to go now, so I sit on the bathroom floor for what feels like forever.
For me, this is what an anxiety attack looks like. It’s debilitating and terrifying, even after having been diagnosed with anxiety years ago. Anxiety may manifest itself differently among people, but having experienced it firsthand is what motivates me to advocate for others in protecting mental health among children and young adults.
On April 12, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force announced their recommendation to promote the screening of anxiety for all children aged 8 and older. This draft remains open to public comment until May 9, after which it is expected to be finalized later this year.
When I first read about this new screening through The New York Times, I knew the internet would have some unsavory thoughts on this concept, so I went to the comment section.
Several users accused the pharmaceutical industry for the report as a means to sell more medications with comments including “In other news, Big Pharma just made up another revenue stream” and “Which pharmaceutical company is pushing this?”
Others argue anxiety is a normal part of society, that everyone deals with it and to start screening children is to “fix” issues that are not real. This is the problem. If society continues to dismiss mental illness, just as they ignore anxiety in children because they don’t understand its severity and how to address it, children will not get the help they need when they need it.
According to the National Survey of Children’s Health, 13.2% of children aged 3-17 had a diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition in 2019. “The most common condition was anxiety, which affected 8.5 percent of children, followed by behavior disorder at 6.8 percent and depression at 3.8 percent,” the NSCH reported.
Additional data from the CDC in a report on suicide rates among high school students in 2019 found that 18.8% of high school students seriously considered attempting suicide and 8.9% actually attempted suicide. These statistics reveal that suicide is the second highest cause of death among 14-18 year olds.
The idea of losing a friend, neighbor or family member to suicide is horrifying, yet too many of us have already experienced this over the course of our lives. So if children are able to start getting screened for mental illnesses as they grow up, tragedies will be prevented, or at the very least reduced.
We must also remember this recommendation is just that: a recommendation. It is yet to be finalized or even implemented. Further concerns about over reliance on medication can also be dismissed because the primary report stated that screening and diagnosis is the objective. Not all individuals who are diagnosed with a mental illness require medications, therefore it cannot be presumed that all children who get screened will be placed on medication.
In the meantime of this report, those who are currently struggling with mental health are not left to their own devices. There are plenty of resources accessible through the University of Oregon as well as national crisis centers.
