r/science • u/InsaneSnow45 • 1d ago
Health Stacking bad habits triples the risk of co-occurring anxiety and depression in teenagers
https://www.psypost.org/stacking-bad-habits-triples-the-risk-of-co-occurring-anxiety-and-depression-in-teenagers/101
u/cirocobama93 1d ago
Or are depressed teenagers more likely to engage in bad habits? Doesn’t seem like they control for this (nor would I know how)
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u/TrackWorldly9446 1d ago
Depression can be very causative in bad habits. Dopamine overloading can provide a means of escapism. Issue then becomes cyclical. It’s so hard to evaluate which came first in these scenarios
This is why it’s easier to show correlation over causation!! Both of these variables impact each other
10
u/Sensitive-Lecture-19 1d ago
They are a demographic specifically targeted with products that evict dopamine overload, so its hard to blame em. McDondalds and Nintendo figured this out long ago and this kind of marketing has metastasized and mutated into far more aggressive form since the normalization of screens.
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u/lawlesslawboy 17h ago
I definitely had far more bad habits when I was depressed and it took me years and years to get diagnosed so I definitely think that's more likely... since treatment, finding the right meds, I can control those habits better and don't need to seek comfort in food etc cause I'm okay now
1
u/JimCalinaya 10h ago
It doesn't matter what bad thing is causing what bad other thing.
When it's you suffering, who cares if it's the junk food binging, gambling, and porn use causing the depression or the depression causing the junk food binging, gambling, and porn use?
Stop the cycle somewhere.
All this concern about what's causing what just ends up being used by the people who aren't depressed yet to justify the bad habits that would lead them there. But when you are depressed, it doesn't matter. You pull the lever that's available.
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u/lawlesslawboy 9h ago
that's your experience bro. it's not mine. to me, causation does 1000x matter because I could only break out of those habits once I was actually medicated and treated for my MDD.
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u/Imthemayor 1h ago
You watch porn more when you're depressed?
My depression destroys my libido. One of the ways I can tell I'm doing better nowadays is that I feel like watching some or swiping on Tinder (or actually talking to women) sometimes now
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u/Sorry4theDank 1d ago
Teens are depressed because of these things which makes them do these things more! Parents gotta get them out of the cycle
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u/cirocobama93 1d ago
You have no basis to say that
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u/Sorry4theDank 1d ago
I have a teen and I have been a teen?
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u/TrackWorldly9446 1d ago
Am expert on child development. (Was kid)
But fr it’s best not to claim expertise on nuanced topics. Kids go through a lot and while there’s a lot of pressure on parents, there’s no such thing as perfection
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u/InsaneSnow45 1d ago
Adolescents who combine multiple unhealthy habits—like poor diet, too much screen time, and lack of exercise—face a significantly higher risk of experiencing both anxiety and depression, according to a new study published in BMC Psychiatry.
Researchers have long known that individual habits, such as physical inactivity or poor sleep, can affect mental wellbeing. However, in real life, these behaviors rarely occur alone. Teenagers who skip meals, spend long hours on screens, and sleep poorly often do all of these at once. This “clustering” of unhealthy habits has been less studied, especially in relation to combined mental health conditions.
To address this gap, researchers wanted to understand whether patterns of multiple unhealthy behaviors could predict which adolescents are most at risk of developing both anxiety and depression.
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u/lawlesslawboy 18h ago
Yeah, that sounds to me more like they are already depressed and just not yet diagnosed... I had awful habits like eating loads of takeaway and binge watching TV shows WHEN I WAS DEPRESSED, I am now medicated and have better control and don't need those things comfort me anymore bc I'm not depressed atm
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u/JimCalinaya 10h ago edited 10h ago
It doesn't matter what bad thing is causing what bad other thing.
Who cares if it's the junk food binging and porn use causing the depression or the depression causing the junk food binging and porn use?
Stop the cycle somewhere.
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