This week in the “Vrai du Faux Junior”, we answer questions about the impact that news, pollution and social networks can have on the mental health of adolescents.
This week, the pupils of the André-Derain college, in Chambourcy (Yvelines) and those of the Georges-Brassens college in Taverny (Val d’Oise) are wondering about the link that can be established between the excessive exposure to current affairs , social networks or pollution on our mental health. To answer them, we called on two specialists in these questions, Dominique Monchablon, psychiatrist and head of service in Paris of a consultation unit dedicated to high school and university students and Catherine Brebrant, psychologist in Paris, she works at the Health Foundation students in France with high school students among others to try to assess their current difficulties.
Watch out for the steady stream of bad news
Liam asks us if it’s true “that following the news harms mental health”.
Dominique Monchablon would first like to remind you that being connected to the news “it is a tremendous engine of personal enrichment, evolution and maturation”. But once said that, she raises several pitfalls, such as the exposure “to a steady stream of negative news, as has been the case during the Covid crisis with anxiety-provoking news, where we saw extremely sad images in hospitals, in intensive care units, and even in morgues. “ All this tends to “aggravate anxiety and depression” according to Dominique Monchablon who always advises “Discuss with your close environment, on what you look at and what you hear because it allows you to regulate the negative emotions that you receive from negative information”.
No link yet established between pollution and mental health
Louis questions the fact “to live in a polluted city” and he wonders if it is true that this increases the risks “to have mental problems”.
Dominique Monchablon notes that in the current state of our knowledge, “nothing allows us to affirm it”, but research has focused on the impact of pollution on a mother’s fetus. She explains “that the maturing fetus is particularly vulnerable to all exogenous factors that could alter its development and a scientific hypothesis has been made concerning the genesis of autism for example.”
We also asked Dominique Monchablon if living in the city, rather than the countryside, could have an impact on our mental health. According to her, “living in the city accumulates the stress factors of the fact in certain districts, in particular of promiscuity, insecurity, sometimes precariousness and also of the migratory mix, that is to say citizens who are in a situation of uprooting and finally the major element of isolation, which is more significant in the city than in the countryside.” According to the psychiatrist, we are therefore “forced to think of a different city of tomorrow, with more spaces, more green spaces, less pollution, but also to fight against insecurity and above all to promote social ties in order to fight against isolation”.
Social media can have a big impact on adolescent mental health
Timothy wonders if it’s true “that the Internet and social networks are dangerous for mental health”.
According to Catherine Brebrant, psychologist, everything depends on the use made of it. According to her, if we share too many details of our private life with photos that concern our daily lives, it “can be dangerous, because commented by many people, even mocked which can lead to harassment. It is from this moment that social networks begin to be a danger to his mental health, because we can “to be touched by what is said above and we have seen young people very impacted on their mental health, even going as far as serious, suicidal gestures“explains Catherine Brebrant.
On social networks and on the Internet, young adolescents can also be confronted with violent or sexualized images. “problematic” explains Catherine Brebrant, because “they will endanger our mental health, because it can shock us on different levels”. Another danger of the Internet and social networks, according to the psychologist, concerns all “false information that circulates and can give a bad representation of the world and of others and which can lead to making bad choices.”