http://generationinstantgratification.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/fashion/28Skin.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin

KGOY - Kids Getting Older Younger

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29797423/

Drug Companies Give Kickbacks to Doctors to encourage them to Medicate Kids

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/09/24/american.kids.most.medicated

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/weekinreview/08zernike.html

Generation OMG

This project is addressing the 21st century human condition; looking at how we as a civilization could be so advanced, how we have progressed in quantum leaps and bounds--- and yet, have somehow overlooked the most important thing of all: how to get along with each other and ourselves.

The evidence is so clearly in the state of our world affairs-- but it is also very much stamped all over the state of our marriages, the state of our bodies... and the place it invariably all shows up: the state of our kids. This generation is self-destructing at a rate like no other, and no one has any idea what to do about it, until now. Let me be very clear that this topic is the main reason this project exists. Because there are solutions that exist for these kids, and it is a horrible lunacy and denial that is enabling an entire generation straight into the forever-lost deep end of the ocean.

The root condition is as follows: when you have a culture that is left brain dominant, lives by analysis and being in control, and spends far more of its time managing life--- living this image, this picture of what life is supposed to be instead of what it genuinely is... then the amount of numbness and disconnection aggregates and grows with every generation that is locked outside itself.

The kids see through it all and they are the ones that pay the price, because they are inheriting and absorbing everything. Anti-psychotic medications for children have gone up 500%, and more disturbing is a study out of Columbia University that says that the increase in childhood mental illness has gone up 4,000%. Also according to a new study from the New York Psychiatric Institute, one in every three 18-25 year olds is dealing with some form of addiction, and 50% of these 18-25 year olds have a diagnosable psychiatric condition. 1 in 5 college kids is self-cutting and 50% of all college students are now actively contemplating suicide. STD's, sexual activity beginning at increasingly younger ages, violence, plastic surgery, drug use, eating disorders... the numbers are all up, and they continue to rise at distressing rates. Being drunk on self-esteem and watching pop psychologists on television (who have made it stridently clear they care exclusively about two things only: cashing checks and their own fame), obviously yields disastrous results. Namely, that this generation is equally enamored of the exact same ideals: fame and money have become both the quest and the anthem.

This is the only generation that has grown up amidst terrorism, war, and genocide; and has resulted in the most depressed, medicated, and celebrity obsessed group ever known to history. They are personified by the five words: too much is never enough. Generation IG is in dire need of help. They keep sounding the alarm, but no relief is ever sent or found. We just keep going on, business as usual... A cell phone rings with shrill insistence. Tonight there is that dinner to go to. What happened with your deal? Did you pick up my prescription? I am late for my meeting, can this wait?... Meanwhile, your straight A-student, high-achieving, popular and bright teenage child is literally and figuratively hanging themselves, overdosing, slitting their own throat and slicing their wrists to the bone. Every. Single. Day. And my phone keeps ringing with another family in tears, leaving me messages, imploring could I please come and help them and their children...? But most times, they are one day too late. It is the most unspeakably tragic thing in the world to witness. It is wholly unnecessary. And it is the fire for this project.

Please understand, as I tell every parent: these children are not suicidal because they want to die.... you need to know it is because they want to live. They just cannot take existing in this hell that surrounds them for one more solitary day. They are begging for a way out, to be shown a light out of the darkness. They are literally trapped underwater and their lungs are bursting. As human beings, we cannot allow this for one minute longer to be happening to our kids, and they are our kids. They need to know that help exists for them and it is free. That there is a way out. How amazing they are. How unbreakable. How to trust themselves. How to take the pressure off. How to see who they are with their own eyes. To learn how to feel all of their emotions safely and let themselves experience the beauty of being alive for the first time after a long, chokingly airless period of not being able to see the sun. They need to know they are seen, and loved with the inexhaustible truth of peace... a love that cannot ever be shattered or taken away from them. I have helped and worked with countless kids, teens, and on up... they are ravenous for this: to free themselves and learn self-connection. To come home and come out of the dark. Because: No human being wants to suffer.

Children are not meant to be born into a world that is this far gone, and to grow up being given no solutions how to navigate through all this pressure to achieve and perform. It used to start at age 25, today it starts at 2. Of course they are self-destructing. The truly sad thing is that their parents think they have given them a good life; they are educated, they took parenting classes. Dear God--- does no one realize, that there is no such thing as parenting??? There is only showing your children who you are and where you are in yourself. Period. And you are either showing them peace or you are showing them hell. Based upon where this generation is, it seems that parents need a large dose of humility to really look at how we got here, and how they can course correct. Quickly.

As we submerge ourselves in our own brand of self-generated-crazy-busy-chaos, we are pulling our children in with us.

Call Out: What do you see is the reason that our kids are drowning in such vast numbers?

Talk About It: Why are so many parents oblivious to what is going on with their children? How did things become so far removed that parents are trying to be friends with their kids? Why are we afraid to hold people/parents accountable to themselves?

 

These words ring truer today more than ever before:

There are no greater strangers than parents and their own children.

- George Bernard Shaw

 

Preschoolers are now becoming increasingly depressed and are the fastest growing new market for medications. Why do you think that no one seems to realize the scope of this epidemic?

- When I Grow Up -

Pussy Cat Dolls

written by R. Jerkins; J McCarty; P. Samwell-Smith; T. Thomas

Boys call you sexy

And you don’t care what they say

See, everytime you turn around they screamin’ your name

Now I’ve got a confession

When I was young, I wanted attention

And I promised myself that I’d do anything

Anything at all for them to notice me

But I ain’t complaining

We all wanna be famous

So go ahead and say what you wanna say

You know what it’s like to be nameless

Want them to know what your name is

Cause’ see when I was younger I would say

When I grow up

I wanna be famous

I wanna be a star

I wanna be in movies

When I grow up

I wanna see the world

Drive nice cars

I wanna have groupies

When I grow up

Be on TV

People know me

Be on magazines

When I grow up

Fresh and clean

Number one chick when I step out on the scene

But be careful what you wish for cause’ you just might get it

You just might get it

You just might get it

They used to tell me I was silly

Until I popped up on the TV

I always wanted to be a superstar

And knew that singing songs would get me this far

But I ain’t complaining

We all wanna be famous

So go ahead and say what you wanna say

You know what it’s like to be nameless

Want them to know what your name is

Cause’ see when I was younger I would say

When I grow up

I wanna be famous

I wanna be a star

I wanna be in movies

When I grow up

I wanna see the world

Drive nice cars

I wanna have groupies

When I grow up

Be on TV

People know me

Be on magazines

When I grow up

Fresh and clean

Number one chick when I step out on the scene

I see them staring at me

Oh, I’m a trendsetter

Yes, this is true ’cause what I do, no one can do it better

You can talk about me

Cause I’m a hot topic

I see you watching me, watching me, and I know you want it

When I grow up

I wanna be famous

I wanna be a star

I wanna be in movies

When I grow up

I wanna see the world

Drive nice cars

I wanna have groupies

When I grow up

Be on TV

People know me

Be on magazines

When I grow up

But be careful what you wish for cause’ you just might get it

You just might get it

You

just

might

get

it

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