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Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Preventing teen depression and anxiety

shown an association with a reduced likelihood of collective well-being and a redefined vision of purpose and
depressive symptoms through improving self-efficacy and shared values – can the future generations stop suffering
self-esteem, social engagement, and enhanced body image. from this cascading effect.

Lifestyle adjustments are more economical and less As a result, education plays a pivotal role in fostering
intrusive. It primarily requires an individual’s willpower a social renaissance by instilling values of well-being and
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to make changes and is easy to implement across various collective responsibility among youth. It is of utmost
cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds, making it one of importance that adolescents’ goals and ideologies are
the most accessible and affordable approaches to managing redefined, altering the linear trajectory of the insatiable
and preventing mental health disorders. However, it is desire for academic success and meeting parents’
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more challenging in practice than in theory. There are many expectations.
mental and physical barriers to overcome to encourage This transformation starts with decentering standardized
the population to engage in an active lifestyle or adopt a testing in the education system and debunks the myth of
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healthier diet and sleep routine. Such an attitude is more of meritocracy. It is crucial to change how we assess both
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a public health challenge than a medical issue. Expecting educators and students at a systemic level to realign values
one-on-one conversations between physicians and patients and priorities toward healthier goals. Educators should act
to overcome such difficulties is not scalable. Thus, it would as agents of change, reengineer curricula by incorporating
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be more practical to prioritize lifestyle adjustment by more service-learning to rebuild communal bonds and
organizing a social movement built upon collaboration shift youth aspirations toward collective flourishing
across government, media, schools, and private sectors. rather than individual achievement. Critically, schools
Policy interventions in areas such as public smoking, must work with mental health professionals and families
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drink-driving laws, and seatbelt regulations have been to build an ecosystem and weave a support network in
quite successful in shaping public behaviors. These which everybody in the ecosystem works together to help
successes provide a strong foundation for taking adolescents.
regulatory approaches for screen time management, a 4.3. Addressing access barriers to unlock
barrier to getting adolescents physically active. It may be psychotherapy’s full potential
easy to regulate screen time, but ensuring compliance is
much more challenging. To address this, policymakers To effectively combat the barriers to mental health, both
could collaborate with manufacturers to preinstall age- governments and the private sector must commit to the
appropriate screen time limits on devices, ensuring that highest level of reinforcement. Systemic interventions such
consumers automatically adhere to these limits by the time as policy changes, taxation, and subsidization must be
they purchase the product. aligned in a top-down approach since the cost of inaction
significantly exceeds the financial cost of these initiatives.
4.2. Social renaissance Digital therapy interventions are proven to improve
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As social values could be the pathological base for mental health by reducing depression and anxiety levels
psychological distress and dysfunction, it is imperative among adolescents, either facilitated by professionals or
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that the relationship between psychopathology and by artificial intelligence. Digital therapy also offers many
the larger social context be reexamined and eventually added benefits in accessibility and affordability. This
reshaped. Social values have the power to steer modern form of treatment saves time by eliminating the need
society and influence humanity, exerting a powerful for commuting, making it easier for patients to adhere
macro force: The force that has created material wealth to treatment. In addition, digital therapy offers timely
and improved living standards is the same force that has interventions, allowing patients to receive support without
created income disparity, secular success, and upward the hassles of booking appointments or enduring long wait
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social comparison; the same force that has shaped modern times.
sedentary, indoor, sleep-deprived, and isolated lifestyles; One special feature of the human brain is that it remains
and the same force that has imposed epigenetic stressors plastic throughout life. Because synaptic plasticity
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on adolescents and cultivate depression and anxiety in is learning-dependent, every experience and learning
modern society. These forces also have moved younger action has the power to change the structure of the brain.
generations further away from the conditions in which they Moreover, based on the theory of positive psychology,
have evolved to thrive, thereby widening the evolutionary helplessness can be learned 68,69 and unlearned. 70,71 Building
mismatch. Only by driving a fundamental value reframing on these learnings, there is an opportunity to rewire
through a social renaissance – a movement centered on adolescents’ mindset, teaching them that happiness and

Volume 3 Issue 4 (2025) 34 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.8077