Patrick Meagher
Farmers Forum
Prominent podcaster and U.S. Catholic bishop Robert Barron has sounded the alarm about a second pandemic, as an unintended consequence of the first.
“Friends, we are in the middle of a mental health crisis, with many calling it another pandemic,” Bishop Barron told his viewers. “Record-high numbers of Americans are facing depression and suicide. Nearly half of young people report feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness.”
The crisis is similar here. Health Canada reported late last year that 5 million people in Canada were suffering from a mood, anxiety or substance-use disorder. That’s one in every eight people.
It seems that no one is immune. A well-known University of Guelph study found that of 1,000 Canadian farmers polled, 62 per cent experienced psychological distress and 34 per cent were suffering from depression.
But now there is an explosion of mental health issues among youth. Shockingly, one of the biggest increases was observed among young Canadian women from age 15 to 24, as 18 % suffered a major depressive episode in 2022 alone, up from 9 per cent in 2012, Health Canada reports. About 1.6 million children and teens in Canada are now dealing with a mental-health disorder, according to Children’s Healthcare Canada.
What happened? Social media is one of the biggest culprits, Bishop Barron said. Years ago, a study on youth found a tight correlation between screen time and depression. The problem picked up steam as youth got hold of cell phones and everything got worse when there was nothing else to do in a pandemic lockdown.
“Getting lost in the virtual world, not the real world, one turns in on oneself,” Barron said. “There is something alienating about the loss of social contact.”
Barron argued that we are built for happiness and to love others. “What makes us happy is connecting to each other. When we reach out and make a real connection with somebody, that makes us happy.”
He noted that love is not a sentimental state of mind. “Love is a kind of metaphysical attitude. I break free of the black hole of my own self-preoccupations so that I can now immerse myself in the real. So when I am talking to you and entering in your world and showing a concern for you, my world has expanded. A new dimension of being has opened up.”
We can and should use screens as they can be a way to reach people but they cannot be an end in itself, he said. He added that the social media world has increased fear in young people of simply answering the front door. Social media is brutal, “a flood of negativity,” while other peoples’ lives look so much better. Other people look so happy, successful and beautiful. “But life isn’t like that. We have good days and bad days,” Barron said. You might think that you are not that beautiful but nobody is, he said.
Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson is blunt about self-centeredness. “There is no technical difference between thinking about yourself and being miserable,” Peterson said in an online lecture, adding that psychologists have known this for 20 years. But he is quick to argue that if a physician offers medication, take it. You might need every means at your disposal to get well, he said.
Interestingly, 20th century Swiss analytical psychologist Carl Jung said that “At bottom, every psychological problem is a spiritual problem.”
Barron agreed. He noted that Jung came to his conclusion after decades of clinical experience with many patients. Barron was more specific, noting that the spiritual tradition has long known “The greatest source of human suffering is idolatry, false worship.”
As society moves away from religion and belief in God, it impacts mental health, he said. In fact, studies have consistently shown that religious people lead happier, stable lives.
This is the first generation in human history to be atheist or indifferent to God, Barron said. Desire for God, who is the ultimate doctor and healer, is an elemental human longing within all of us, Barron opined. But the current generation, he noted, doesn’t care, has replaced God with false worship (such as money, sex, sports, entertainment) and we, as a society, are shockingly okay with that.
