> the rise of depression and anxiety since the 1960s (as mentioned in the article), the point in time at which civilization made personal freedoms a top priority, seems to hint at that.

This bodes ill for the future when a good chunk of the remaining jobs will be automated away for good to be replaced with unstructured free time.

It reminds me of a recent article I read about a girl that suffered from anxiety unless she is creating cosplay costumes. It struck me that the particular activity probably had less to do with the solution than the fact that she had something to do.

Kids have less unstructured time than in a few generations. And they often have little saw over how that time is structured. And that structured time is usually spent on pointless exercises determined by adults. They aren't helping grandpa on the farm and they aren't reading comic books with their friends in a tree fort. They're being ran around by their moms to whatever sport or activity she can find to make them more socialized.

Or to look good on application forms

> I think what you'd basically find in a survey

This is a flimsy setup for your conclusions, which you seem confident about. Do you have data from an actual survey?

.

Your survey doesn't make sense. The answer for "More" freedom apparently involves more constraints?

self reported opinions polls are the very definition of an unrepresentative poll http://methods.sagepub.com/reference/encyclopedia-of-survey-...

Just as an FYI, that seems to be behind a paywall.

Something to keep in mind when studying statistics on the prevalence og psychological issues, particularly in children, is chronic underreporting in the past. We're paying a lot more attention to our kids now than we used to, and from what I understand, in many cases the higher prevalence of some issues is likely to just be a case of us only recently paying attention.

> the 1960s (as mentioned in the article), the point in time at which civilization made personal freedoms a top priority

Lots of things happened in the 60s. One of them was the first generation being raised by parents who may have spent a significant portion of their childhood living under the Cold War threat of an imminent nuclear holocaust, who then went on to raise their own children.

The "rise" of depression and anxiety is similar to the "rise" in things that are now declared autism. Bullshit.

In 1960, half of the population had a limited number of roles easily available to them: housewife, secretary, nurse (both until marriage), servant. Most of the non-white population was diverted to specific cul-de-sacs in terms of place in society.

Do you think these folks were overflowing with joy and purpose? They did not. Google "female hysteria", a condition that was treated with prescriptions for vibrators, narcotics or institutionalization.

I wonder how you would study that question (about how much freedom results in optimal happiness across the population). I'd be surprised if it evenly resolved into even thirds.

So you're reasoning about the invented results of an imaginative survey and reaching conclusions from that, then promulgating them with total confidence?