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Mental Stress Among the Snowflake Generation
10 November 2020, 17:41,
#1
Mental Stress Among the Snowflake Generation
Reality is not for the weak or faint-hearted. Experienced mentors are the most important component of building resilience in young folks new to the arena. Our cultural reliance on college degrees and signaling credentials is most unhelpful.

Young folks get the idea they’re qualified to operate independently because they’ve been "sufficiently educated." That’s generally hubris. As the old saying goes, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In engineering, the Engineer In Training (EIT) program in the US and testing for certification helps complete the education under 4 years of apprenticeship supervision by an experienced professional. Not all career fields have programs built on apprenticeship, but the skilled trades and medicine certainly do.

The "sink or swim", aka "dog eat dog" approach used in much of the business world is an extreme disservice to new hires. Apprenticeship is the way in which traditional wisdom and practitioner knowledge is passed between generations.

Rites of passage really do make a big difference. A guiding mentor helps a lot. Most importantly, a desire to succeed despite obstacles and hard experience. Reality is a harsh and unyielding teacher; it's best that folks accept that early in life.

Many of those who suffer crippling mental stress in the wilderness or in combat are young, immature, and have little real life experience. We are seeing a similar thing happening today in US law enforcement. My generation included a lot of Vietnam vets who entered LE. They had seen all manner of carnage, tragedy and horror stuff that made street violence and urban crime look mild. Today, many entering LE are college grads who in their 20s who are applying for their first full-time job. If hired, after completion of the academy there's a long learning curve, generally about 4 years, to become street smart and to adjust to the realities of what they see out there. Some grasp it and others don't and quit.

In my opinion US LE should raise its minimum hiring age to 30.

In our civilian world those under care for certain mental issues likely should never place themselves in stressful situations at all, if they hope to survive. The tinfoil hat is less effective than the Kevlar helmet and Level 3 body armour.

A good read on the subject:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2418546/ka...psychology

73 de KE4SKY
In
"Almost Heaven" West Virginia
USA
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10 November 2020, 21:44,
#2
RE: Mental Stress Among the Snowflake Generation
Charles how very true.

I’m very glad that instead of university and a chemistry degree that high school tried to push me into I decided on an apprenticeship at a steelworks, I am proud of my indentures, framed in my den/study.

It’s not only the knowledge I learned, but the skills of handling tools which have stood me in good stead throughout my life, and more importantly learning to work with and respect the people who mentored me.
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11 November 2020, 03:54,
#3
RE: Mental Stress Among the Snowflake Generation
In today's PC era, generations of young people have been discouraged from developing logical problem solving skills, and from developing self confidence, self reliance and responsible independence. Individualism has been discouraged whilst group process has been promoted as the supposed "best practice" for problem solving. Traditional systems which in the past were valuable ways for young men and women to acquire practical outdoor and social skills, such as the Boy/Girl Scouts and other such practical preparatory institutions have largely disappeared. Unfortunately some after devolving into hunting grounds for pedophiles. All of this on top of the contrived, hollow social skills being taught by a leftist school system.

So we have ended up with young people who, when placed in the wilderness or deployed to a combat zone who have something unpleasant happening unexpected to them, are have significant skill deficits in things like how to organize their thoughts while under stress while controlling their emotions. They struggle with stepping into a leadership role if/when that behavior is needed.
Farm kids, as opposed to city and suburban ones usually will not have these issues to as great a degree. But the snowflake urban child who was taught that the wilderness is a benign place of sunshine, greenery, and beauty; a Disney Land like place where even the animals smile is in for a rude awakening.

It’s been my observation an an emergency manager and a military officer that people bring their troubles with them, wherever they go, whether genetic or acquired, physical or mental. The need for emergency behavioral health intervention skills is overstated in the referenced article, in the interest of establishing a business and selling a product. Natural catastrophic events are fairly rare and traumatic death among outdoors enthusiasts is infrequent. When "it" happens to someone it’s usually due to naiive stupidity (aka lack of training and experience). In remote locations a satellite phone can be used to summon help, from having an ER doc walk someone through splinting a broken leg, to having a mental health professional teach someone relaxation techniques.

If a guide service is concerned about their clients, they might need to have a legal form in which the client is asked to disclose physical and mental conditions for which they require medication, followup by the guide service is needed at the trailhead to be sure necessary medications are at hand before leaving the parking lit. Requiring skill levels appropriate for the activity seems like a no brainer for outdoor adventure businesses in this arena. Beyond that, a satellite phone and some benzos are about as good as anything. At the risk of being accused of practicing medicine without a licence I would state from my experience in ski patrol and outdoor search and rescue that sedating antihistamines are almost as good in most instances.

Independent ability to hit the outback without a psychotherapist in ones pack is to be preferred. Must we extend the nanny state into the wilderness? Will we be required to have an inflatable couch from which to process any guilt from having killed an elk?

The simple fact is that behavioral health issues are very seldom life threatening. I didn’t see that addressed in the referenced article, nor did I see any acknowledgement of the fact that legally and professionally, no one is even allowed to diagnose the presence of a mental disorder of any kind unless and until the possibility of the observed symptoms being caused by physiological disorders has been ruled out.

When working natural disasters as a professional responder I have seen significant delirium that was caused by diabetic ketoacidosis; hallucinations caused by mild head trauma, anxiety caused by changes of elevation, suicidal depression caused by a cervical nerve root pinch and also once by an infected molar. Intervening when the condition has been misdiagnosed is dangerous, not to mention unethical and unprofessional. That is why a registered nurse, physician's assistant or emergency medical technician always accompanies a SAR team. A delusional person suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis indeed can be killed if given sedatives.

Verbal de escalation skills are easily acquired (active listening skills from the ages old Parent Effectiveness Training are as good as any) and in most mental health crisis are quite effective. Beyond that, if someone is losing it, the EMT hitting them with some benzodiazepines is probably the best way to go. But really, this seems like much ado about nothing. (Re the doc in the article doing wilderness medicine: our on-call emergency physician on the other end of the radio always used to say amongst ourselves that the most dangerous thing for people with psych issues was a family practice doc trying to treat those issues by dispensing meds. I suspect the same is true here.

Off the soap box.

73 de KE4SKY
In
"Almost Heaven" West Virginia
USA
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