A Clinical Psychological Science article found that the increases in depression, suicide attempts and suicide appeared among teens from every background.
From 2010 to 2015, the number of 13-to-18-year-olds who committed suicide jumped 31 percent, as well as depression. Experts say excessive smartphone use is to blame.
Austin Clinical Forensic Psychologist Dr. John Huber is the Chairman for Mainstream Mental Health. He said young people are spending all their extra time on smartphones and not interacting with real people.
“There’s nothing greater for a human being to see another human being that you like and you appreciate. When they walk down the hall at work and they smile at you, you actually get a dopamine rush. Hormones are released like klotho, which actually helps prevent heart disease,” said Huber.
He said social media only gives a hint of true hormone rush.
“When we get on Facebook and we don’t actually have physical contact with somebody and they like us and they friend us and all that kind of stuff, we get little bitty bumps of Dopamine, but there’s nothing behind it,” said Huber. “It’s very much like drinking a diet soda, where you get a saccharin sweet, but there’s no nutrition behind the whole thing.”
People born after 1995 are much more likely to experience mental-health issues than millennials.