A Journalist Doing Irreversible Damage

I recently finished reading Bad Therpy by Abigail Shrier. This is my work's book club choice.

~POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT~

  Rating: 1/5 stars

"In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z's mental health is worse than that of previous generations. Youth suicide rates are climbing, antidepressant prescriptions for children are common, and the proliferation of mental health diagnoses has not stopped the trend. What has gone wrong with our youth? In Bad Therapy, bestselling investigative journalist Abigail Shrier argues that the problem isn't the kids — it's the mental health experts. Mental health care can be lifesaving when properly applied, but that is not what's happening. Instead, children experiencing the normal pangs of adolescence and their anxious parents are seeking answers from therapists, who are only too happy to explore what might be wrong — and to make money doing so. No industry seems to turn away from the possibility of exponential growth, and our mental health industry is no exception. It asks children again, and How do you feel? Are you sure? By treating the well, it is making them sick, feeding normal kids with normal problems into the mental healthcare pipeline. It is minting patients faster than it can cure them. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with doctors, parents, therapists, and young people, Shrier enumerates the dangerous side effects of unnecessary or poorly executed mental health care. With clear eyes and compassion, she examines ways worried parents who think they must indulge their child's every feeling make matters worse, and she offers liberating advice for raising emotionally resilient and independent children. Packed with relatable stories, devastating insights, and common-sense conclusions, Bad Therapy is a must-read for anyone concerned about protecting the next generation."

This is a highly problematic book, and I fear that people who read it will walk away nodding their heads in agreement without actually taking the time to think it through. I have to wonder why Shrier decided to write this book, and based on what she wrote, I have to think she only went out seeking confirmation bias for her own parenting choices.

Even when she looks outside her culture and into "third world countries" (her words - and I'm really not sure which countries she's referring to) or even when she's referring to any other country, she's culturally tone deaf there too. When she talks about Japanese children walking to school alone and running errands on their own, she doesn't realize that they can do this without fear because there is virtually no crime in Japan. There are no guns in Japan. Children are not generally kidnapped in Japan. People are safe drivers there. Road rage doesn't really exist. No one is texting and driving (at least not in Tokyo). When she proudly talks about how she let her children walk home from school, there's no context here either. Are they walking a block? Are they walking together? Are they walking with other children? Are they walking on busy streets? Or maybe she truly isn't concerned with a potential crime, or car accident, or the general safety of her child. She wonders if children even like their parents these days. Again, I question if it was her own children who didn't like her that drove her to "research" and write this book.

At one point, she blames empathy for racism. I had to read that twice. I actually screamed WTF the first time. Yup, she says empathy is biased and pushes us toward parochialism and racism. I also almost lost my shit when she wanted us to go back to "masculine style parenting" and wanted readers to see parents as the victims of abuse. Masculine style parenting, in her words, is telling kids to knock it off and shake it off instead of helping them through a difficult situation. There's an actual international day set aside for men's mental health because they are so used to holding their lives together without reaching out for help, without taking care of their mental health, and perpetuating toxic masculinity from generation to generation.

I get that therapy isn't for everyone and that it's a personal choice. All her suppositions are based on and written as generalities. She makes it sound like every therapist is out there for the detriment of parents and even suggests that children are being used to spy on parents so that they can be reported as bad parents. Her views are too extreme for me to take seriously. She never makes any allowances that maybe there are some good therapists out there, that maybe sometimes it is actually appropriate for a psychiatrist to recommend a drug, that perhaps not every therapist and school teacher or admin (yes, she lumps them all together) is out to catch the parents out or ruin their lives.

This book is garbage and should be treated as such. Throw it in the trash if you've got a copy, or save yourself the time and money and don't bother picking it up in the first place.

Normally, I recommend checking out a book, but do yourself a favor and just don't with this one.