Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| November 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n Thirty years ago, sociologist\u00a0Meda Chesney-Lind<\/a>\u00a0deplored the \u201ccriminalization of girls\u2019 survival strategies\u201d by authorities who callously ignored violent and sexual abuses inflicted on girls, then forcefully stepped in to arrest and confine girls who ran away or \u201cincorrigibly\u201d defied their abusers.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s bizarrely contradictory numbers warn that authorities who ignore widespread abuses and family troubles girls\u2019 suffer are similarly \u201cpathologizing girls\u2019 survival strategies\u201d by mischaracterizing girls\u2019 understandable depression as a teenage \u201cmental health crisis\u201d justifying severe restrictions on teens, including bans and parental controls on vital social media use.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve detailed Centers for Disease Control survey numbers showing how\u00a0depressed girls from troubled families<\/a>\u00a0use social media to reduce their suicide attempts and self-harm. Independent numbers also indicate more serious survival strategies girls \u2013 and some boys as well \u2013 in difficult circumstances ignored by authorities use to avoid deadly outcomes. Of course, authorities and commentators then pathologize girls\u2019 strategies rather than the conditions that caused them.<\/p>\n We\u2019re getting the teenage \u201cmental health crisis\u201d all wrong \u2013 perhaps deliberately so<\/strong><\/p>\n Among commentators\u2019 many grotesque misrepresentations of suicide and drug overdose is their universal refusal to acknowledge and incorporate the vital fact that teens\u2019 rates, especially for girls, are far below rates of supposedly stable grownups.<\/p>\n The following tables show the CDC\u2019s latest, 2023, estimates of\u00a0hospital emergency (ER) cases<\/a>\u00a0for self-inflicted injuries (self-harm and overdose overlap), along with tabulations of\u00a0deaths<\/a>\u00a0in society from corresponding causes. Teen and parent ages of nearly equal population size are depicted so the numbers can be directly compared:<\/p>\n The ratio of self-harm hospital cases to deaths:<\/p>\n That is, girls give\u00a0plenty<\/em>\u00a0of warning of distress before killing themselves. In contrast, boys and adult women provide little advance warning. Adult men? practically none.<\/p>\n The overdose ER-to-death pattern is also intriguing:<\/p>\n Girls have as many overdose ER cases as adult women, while boys have fewer and adult men the most. Yet, teens register very few deaths from overdoses in society. The adult ER pattern appears to reflect\u00a0real trends toward more deadly drug abuse<\/a>, while the teen pattern, especially for girls, reflects more of a warning flag.<\/p>\nTeenaged girls report much more sadness than boys or grownups. Yet girls are vastly safer from suicide and self-inflicted death. What are we missing here?<\/h5>\n
Female age 10-19<\/h3>\n
Hospital ER visits: 134,500 for self-harm, 114,300 for overdoses<\/h5>\n
Actual deaths in society: 724 suicides, 646 fatal drug overdoses<\/h5>\n
Male age 10-19<\/h3>\n
Hospital ER visits: 35,900 for self-harm, 66,300 for overdoses<\/h5>\n
Actual deaths in society: 1,913 suicides, 1,057 fatal drug overdoses<\/h5>\n
Female age 40-49<\/h3>\n
Hospital ER visits: 21,800 for self-harm, 114,700 for overdoses<\/h5>\n
Actual deaths in society: 1,787 suicides, 7,152 fatal drug overdoses<\/h5>\n
Male age 40-49<\/h3>\n
Hospital ER visits: 20,800 for self-harm, 240,600 for overdoses<\/h5>\n
Actual deaths in society: 6,156 suicides, 17,085 fatal drug overdoses<\/h5>\n
Girls age 10-19: 185 to 1<\/h5>\n
Boys age 10-19: 19 to 1<\/h5>\n
Women age 40-49: 12 to 1<\/h5>\n
Men age 40-49: 3 to 1<\/h5>\n
Girls age 10-19: 175 to 1<\/h5>\n
Boys age 10-19: 60 to 1<\/h5>\n
Women age 40-49: 16 to 1<\/h5>\n
Men age 40-49: 14 to 1<\/h5>\n