We are raising a generation of sick children, says Drauzio – 04/29/2023 – Health

Faced with the worsening mental health of children and adolescents, a topic that has been discussed again after the recent attacks on schools, doctor and writer Drauzio Varella, 79, says it is time to create strategies so that children can play with children again. other children, for example, by expanding access to full-time schools.

“We are raising a generation of sick children, with serious mental problems. And without the possibility of getting out of this picture. Nobody knows what will happen with the brain stimuli that these games and the internet bring at every moment”, he says in an interview with Sheet.

According to him, children from past generations, like his, lived in a more welcoming world, without the urban violence that exists today and with many friends to play with.

“I was raised on the street, playing ball all day, I had hundreds of friends. I would wake up and go out, someone would come with the ball, we would choose the teams and play the whole time. We have no idea what will happen with this generation.”

The doctor says that, now, with smaller families, who have one or two children at most, and very busy parents, it is very common to see children alone at home. “What do you do with a child like that who is full of energy and has no other children to play with? Here comes the little game that holds everything back, she’s distracted for hours.”

Drauzio claims that these new technologies more easily capture the youngest. “When you spend time on the internet for your work, you get a little tired of it, you want to stop for a while. But the child is stimulated, he gets an adrenaline rush all the time, he is captured by this type of technology .”

He says he doesn’t see these changes with good eyes. “And this is not old man talk, I think this is not working now, and the consequences will be worse in the future.”

For the doctor, this increase in childhood mental disorders is just a “pale idea” of what may come ahead. “The number of children with panic disorders, with anxiety, those who cut themselves to reduce anxiety.”

According to him, the way out is for society to “go back a little”. “Children need to have access to games, free spaces to play, full-time schools, to get the child out of this situation.”

And the problem is not limited to mental disorders, points out the doctor. “When I was a child, I knew a single boy on the street who had asthma. Now you go in families, everywhere there are children being taken to the emergency room with shortness of breath. There are children sniffing carpet, gaining weight. It’s not cool That’s it. We need to have educational programs not just for the kids, but for the parents as well. And offer full-time schools. It’s a way at least.”