Throughout the season, I noticed similar events all around me. Parents seemed hard pressed to find new thrills for nonchalant kids. I saw this pattern in my family, in the sons and daughters of friends and neighbors and in many of my patients with behavioral and emotional problems. Surrounded by ever-greater stimulation, their young faces were looking disappointed and bored.
By August, neighborhood parents were comparing their children’s complaints of ““nothing to do” to the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. They were also shelling out large numbers of dollars for movies, amusement parks, video arcades, camps and v isits to the mall. In many cases the money seemed to do little more than buy transient relief from the terrible moans of their bored children. This set me pondering the obvious question: ““How can it be so hard for kids to find something to do when there ’s never been such a range of stimulating entertainment available to them?”
What really worries me is the intensity of the stimulation. I watch my 11-year-old daughter’s face as she absorbs the powerful onslaught of arousing visuals and gory special effects in movies. Although my son is prohibited from playing violent vide ogames, I have seen some of his third-grade friends at an arcade inflicting blood-splattering, dismembering blows upon on-screen opponents in distressingly realistic games. My 4-year-old boy’s high-tech toys have consumed enough batteries to power a smal l village for a year.
Why do children immersed in this much excitement seem starved for more? That was, I realized, the point. I discovered during my own reckless adolescence that what creates exhilaration is not going fast, but going faster. Accelerating from 0 to 60 m ph in a few seconds slams the body backward with powerful sensations, but going 60 for hours on the interstate causes so little feeling of speed that we fight to stay awake. At a steady velocity of 600 mph we can calmly sip coffee on an airplane. Thrills have less to do with speed than changes in speed.
Since returning to school, the kids have been navigating ever more densely packed schedules. The morning rush to make the schoolbus is matched by a rapid shuttle through after-school sports, piano, foreign-language programs and social activities. D inner is, too often, a series of snacks eaten on the run. Then, if they manage to get their homework done, the kids want to ““relax” in front of highly arousing images on the television or computer screen.
I’m concerned about the cumulative effect of years at these levels of feverish activity. It is no mystery to me why many teenagers appear apathetic and burned out, with a ““been there, done that” air of indifference toward much of life. As increasi ng numbers of friends’ children are prescribed medications–stimulants to deal with inattentiveness at school or antidepressants to help with the loss of interest and joy in their lives–I question the role of kids’ boredom in some of the diagnoses.
My own work–behavioral pediatrics and child psychiatry–is focused on the chemical imbalances and biological underpinnings to behavioral and emotional disorders. These are complex problems. Some of the most important research concentrates on genet ic vulnerabilities and the effects of stress on the developing brain. Yet I’ve been reflecting more and more on how the pace of life and the intensity of stimulation may be contributing to the rising rates of psychiatric problems among children and adole scents in our society.
The problem of overstimulation arises frequently in my work on children’s sleep. Although I diagnose and treat many unusual neurologically based sleep disorders, the most common is deceptively simple–many kids and adolescents don’t get enough slee p. There are myriad factors in delaying bedtime despite the need to get up early for school. Even when tired, children often find stimulation through exciting activities. Fighting off tiredness by going faster can turn into a habit–and habits can be ver y hard to change. Most important, as thrills displace needed rest, sleep- deprived kids have trouble with irritability, inattention and moodiness. Ironically, stimulants can seem to help children with these symptoms.
Our research also suggests that difficulties in turning down one’s emotions after a stressful event may be a major factor leading to adolescent mood disorders. Constant access to high stimulation may also create patterns of emotional imbalance. An adolescent moving too fast emotionally for too long can experience the same sense of stillness as the airline passenger traveling at breakneck speed.
My wait at the airport for a flight home from a scientific meeting gave me time to think more about this fast-track phenomenon. I fleetingly considered my own need to slow down and the disturbing truth in the clichE that each year goes by more quic kly. I realized with sadness how soon my children will be grown, and I sensed the fear that I may miss chapters of their childhood amid my hectic, overfilled life. In these images, I saw clearly the need to help our children find alternatives to the thri ll-seeking fast lane by leading a slower version of life ourselves. I became convinced that nothing could be so important as finding a more balanced path, rediscovering slower, simpler pleasures before we all become burned out and bored to death.
