We are presiding over a generation of teens that have learned self-harm and suicidal thoughts as a way of coping. Without healthy coping skills, it's no wonder teens are feeling anxious over every day hassles.

We're seeing firsthand what happens when an entire generation has spent their childhoods using electronics that replace opportunities to develop mental strength and resiliency.

Cultural trends in the last 10 years may have a large effect on mood disorders and suicide-related thinking. Today, teens experience pain as fast as the flip of a switch - like turning a light bulb - and they have not gained the coping skills they need to handle everyday challenges and discomfort. They have missed out on important life skills lessons, how to regulate emotions and build resiliency to deal with the obstacles and situations they face. What can be perceived as everyday life situations and challenges to adults can be insurmountable for a teenager today.

Throughout our Marin County middle and high schools, we are seeing high levels of passive suicidal ideation - when teens experience fleeting or vague ideas about committing suicide and viewing the act as a possible way to end the pain, but no action is taken.

This type of behavior has become an accepted way for teens to communicate and they tend to be open to their peers on the subject. For example, teens regularly post about hating their lives and wanting to kill themselves, so much in fact that it's almost like a competitive "race to the bottom." As one Marin County mother of a middle schooler expressed, "my daughter will greet her friend at school in the morning with an exchange of "I think I'll kill myself today", and the friend will respond, "yeah, me too". As the daughter explained, that's "just how we talk these days." Or teens say they will see a post about depression or suicide ideation and sometimes just pass it off as relatable dark humor.

Because teens are interacting in a way that isn't face to face, there's less of a connection, so it's more difficult to know if this is the new "typical teen talk" or if a teen is at serious risk of suicide. Teens now spend much less time interacting with their friends in person. Interacting with people face to face is one of the deepest wellsprings of human happiness; without it, our moods start to suffer and depression often follows. Feeling socially isolated is also one of the major risk factors for suicide. We found that teens who spent more time than average online and less time than average with friends in person were the most likely to be depressed. Since 2012, that's what has occurred en masse: teens have spent less time on activities known to benefit mental health (in-person social interaction) and more time on activities that may harm it (time online).

Increases in psychological stress are in part due to increased use of electronic communication and digital media, but there are plenty of other modern day stressors that may be contributing to this new culture of suicidal ideation. To name a few: