Why Our Kids Are Breaking?
- Leif Rasmussen
- Oct 13
- 2 min read
Summary
Today’s children aren’t just stressed — they’re living in a world that is changing faster than they can adapt.
The cure isn’t calm; it’s cognitive flexibility. A set of skills that help them solve the challenges they face .. and grow from them.
Here’s how Mind Skills can help.
Why Young Minds Are Breaking Faster Than We Can Mend Them
Let’s start with the bad news: the U-curve of happiness is collapsing. For decades, well-being dipped in adulthood, then rebounded later in life. Not anymore. Today’s youth are starting out anxious, burned out, and increasingly hopeless — and the bounce-back might never come (Blanchflower, 2025).
They’ve grown up inside what sociologists now call a poly-crisis: pandemic isolation, climate dread, digital overload, and now AI reshaping every career path before it’s even begun. Adolescence used to be a time for building identity. Now it’s a scramble for stability in a world that can’t promise any.
Here’s the dark punchline: we built their world this way — hyper-specialized, hyper-comparative, and increasingly meaningless. And we’re still telling kids to “follow their passion” as if one narrow lane will lead them safely home.
But there’s a better story. Resilience isn’t a trait — it’s a trainable skill.
Through frameworks like:
S.E.E. (Sense, Evaluate, Empower)
M.E.O. (Memory Effect Optimization)
and
M.S.O. (Mind Structure Optimization), we can teach young minds how to adapt, not collapse: to sense change early, evaluate it calmly, and act with flexible focus. The future belongs to polymaths — kids curious enough to pivot, not panic.
Key takeaways
The “U-curve” of happiness is flattening — youth well-being is declining faster than recovery trends predict.
Modern teens face a poly-crisis of overlapping uncertainties: pandemic scars, climate anxiety, AI disruption.
What children need today is breadth over just depth — training curiosity, adaptability, and cognitive flexibility .. even the skill of creating HUMAN CONNECTION
Source
Adapted from: Psychology Today – “Why Young Minds Are Breaking Faster Than We Can Mend Them” (September 22, 2025) Psychology Today
AND If you’re in Luzern on October 16th, come say hi — free of charge, just good conversation — at Bourbaki, 15:00. Let’s talk about how to raise minds that don’t just survive the storm, but learn to read the weather.
Help children train their skills. Explore different Mind Skills frameworks to help young minds thrive through intense changes.
