Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up

Shrier’s experiences with therapy ranged from enlightening to unsettling. Because she was an adult, she drew upon her life experiences and maturity to question the conclusions of some therapists. Given the power differential between a therapist and a child, it is unlikely that children could do the same.

The definition of therapy is circular, as it is defined as any conversation a patient has with a therapist. Any type of healing treatment brings the risk of harm. From the Greek, iatrogenesis means ‘originating with the healer’ and refers to the potential of a healer harming a patient in treatment. For example, X-rays are helpful in diagnosis, but overexposure brings health risks. Any treatment strong enough to cure a psychological problem is strong enough to hurt, and she says the treatment does cause negative side effects in 20 percent of cases.

Shrier highlights the many potential harms of therapy. Standard de-briefings for victims of disaster made post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) worse. Therapy can cause people to perceive themselves as sick, encourage family estrangement, and inflict more trauma, dependence, and other negative effects. Some people do better not speaking about trauma and coping otherwise with exercise, for example. Therapy can undermine the normal process of resilience.

Group therapy tends to make everyone sad, with the most dejected steering “the ship to Planet Misery” (9). She cites Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) as a disastrous example of a form of group therapy for those who did not have a drug problem. It likely increased drug abuse, as participants in group therapy who never had a problem were introduced to it.

Noting the long history of abuse in the mental health field, such as the use of lobotomies, she accuses the field of making up illnesses in modern times, such as recovered memory syndrome in the late 20th century United States (US). In the 21st century, she attributes the “gender dysphoria craze” (11) to this industry as well. Unlike physicians or surgeons, therapists will not admit the possibility of risks of treatment. Perhaps it is too personal, as the risk pertains to their words. However, she blames unprecedented iatrogenic effects on the widespread subjection of a healthy population to mental health treatments.

Because so many people are looking for explanations for unhappiness, they are receiving diagnoses that were once rare. Nearly 40 percent of the rising generation, per Shrier, have received treatment from a mental health professional versus only 26 percent of Generation X. Normality has been classified as abnormality. The misbehavior of children is described in therapeutic language instead of moral terms. Picky eaters, for example, are food avoidant. A longtime protocol to send children with active head lice home has been changed in places to prevent damage to those children’s psyches.

The rash of treatments for anxiety and depression have coincided with a large increase in those ailments. Therapists blame several things. While smartphones and social media have negatively impacted the mental health of adolescents, Shrier notes that no psychological organization has called for limits upon them. In fact, they are allowed in schools, distracting students from learning. Covid lockdowns are also cited as contributing to poor mental health. Yet once again, the American Psychological Association (APA) did not oppose these lockdowns even a year into the pandemic. Climate anxiety is cited as well. Here, Shrier highlights some environmental trends moving in the correct direction and claims that parents reinforce their children’s fears instead of alleviating them. Liberals, in her view, are the most likely to scare their children on this issue, and depression is most closely connected to that worldview.

Because children are overprotected from hurt feelings and failure, “university life hits these kids like a hailstorm” (30). As a result, they turn to drugs. They worry about social interactions and exams. Instead of placing such worries in perspective, therapists seek to affirm these fears and validate feelings.

She asserts that Generation Z, or those born between 1995 and 2012, are the most fearful and pessimistic, lacking a sense of agency. Instead, they have an external locus of control and see events as outside of their control. Shrier cautions that a therapist is no replacement for a friend. Furthermore, Big Tech is creating apps that will provide more and more therapy to all. Survey questions tend to make people depressed, yet they present a business opportunity. Shrier concludes that at best, therapy is not working and it is more likely that it is making “young people sicker, sadder, and more afraid to grow up” (38).

Citing concerns of child and adolescent psychologist Camilo Ortiz, Shrier argues that it would be more effective for therapists to work with parents than children. The power differential between therapist and child is too great, and children receive the message that something is wrong with them. Since their parents cannot fix their problem, these children no longer respect their authority. Ortiz and Shrier believe in some types of therapy, such as cognitive behavioral methods aimed at remedying specific problems, such as phobias or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Shrier targets what she considers bad therapy.

First, bad therapy teaches children to pay close attention to their feelings, yet emotions are unstable. She believes it is healthier to repress some emotions at times. Constant reflection about feelings generates negativity. Indeed, there are two states of mind: an action and state orientation. A state orientation focuses on self, while an action orientation focuses on a task and is more likely to lead to success. Second, bad therapy encourages rumination or dwelling on a problem. This propensity to talk incessantly about emotional pain is a symptom of depression. Third, bad therapy makes happiness a goal but rewards emotional suffering. In addition to this, the more someone seeks happiness, the more likely that person is going to be disappointed. Furthermore, depression gets attention and therefore is socially rewarded.

The fourth step in bad therapy is to affirm and accommodate the worries of children. It would be healthier to have children confront their fears and experience some discomfort in preparation for the chaos of life. Fifth, bad therapy involves the close monitoring of children. Worrying about the potential for emotional damage, parents do not allow their children any privacy. The lack of privacy increases stress, as children are under constant observation. The sixth step in bad therapy is the liberal dispensation of diagnoses. Shrier emphasizes the impact of such diagnoses. When told something is wrong with them, children develop a negative understanding of themselves. Seventh, children are medicated in bad therapy. Such medications not only result in negative side effects, such as weight gain and fatigue, but numb children to life when they should be learning how to handle risks. Per Shrier, “[a]ltering your child’s brain chemistry is about as profound a decision as you’ll ever make as a parent” (56).

In the eighth step of bad therapy, children are encouraged to share their trauma. Talking about trauma does not help all people and can create more problems. Children are discouraged from ignoring even trivial pain. In step nine of bad therapy, young adults are encouraged to break contact with toxic family members. One survey indicates that 30 percent of Americans over 18 have cut ties with a family member. This advice makes relationships seem expendable, and it is inaccurate to blame all unhappiness on childhood experiences. Finally, step ten of bad therapy creates treatment dependency. Patients cannot act without the approval of an authority figure and are therefore passive. They do not trust themselves. In short, bad therapy “encourages hyperfocus on one’s emotional states” (64). This makes symptoms worse.