The study conducted on behalf of the Richmond Foundation about the mental health of youth and published a few weeks ago provides a lot of food for thought (Times of Malta, April 22). The high percentage of young people experiencing anxiety and depressive moods is alarming. If youths are going through so much stress now, one wonders what their adult life is going to be like.
In her concluding speech, CEO Stephania Dimech Sant underscored the fact that this study helps the foundation offer a better healing service. This is very true because the better one knows the disease the better one can heal it.
From the article, it is not clear whether the survey participants were asked what they believed to be the cause of such miserable mental states. In passing, it is mentioned that youth have feelings about being on social media and, more concretely, that 16-year-olds have FOMO [fear of missing out]-related concerns.
People commenting online on the story suggested causes: the educational system, demanding jobs, destruction of the environment, local politics, the forceful feeding of religious dogmas, peer pressure.
There is no doubt that some of these are indeed stressors and could cause anxiety. However, I would like to dwell on the contribution of commenter T. Borg. He, or she, like me, accepts that the above can cause anxiety, but then adds, “What we need to do, (...) give them a real purpose in life.”
Viktor Frankl's Man’s Search for MeaningThis brings to mind the well-known neurologist and psychologist Viktor Frankl, author of logotherapy. Frankl wrote an account of life in the Nazi concentration camp where he, a Jew, was kept prisoner – Man’s Search for Meaning. He noticed that those who had meaning in life were more resilient and managed to resist the atrocities of the camp better than those who were simply physically strong.
Frankl refers to research according to which “meaninglessness” is linked to depression and, further, that people tend to fill lack of meaning with hedonistic pleasures, power, materialism and other neurotic obsessions. Meaning is not given great importance by our culture. As one author puts it, “Disinterest with the transcendent prevails; no one is interested in what lies beyond everyday reality, the world of work, money, food, health, consumption, sex, well-being, and security in old age” (Victor Cordina).
I think “the new ways of living teenage years and youth”, suggested by blogger Joe Xerri as the cause for stress, belongs here. However, I’m afraid youth are living in this way simply because they are living in the world that we adults have created.
Another buzzword of our culture is ‘freedom’, a very beautiful word, but not everyone understands the same reality by it. Frankl distinguishes between “freedom from” and “freedom to”. The former means living without any restraints whatsoever. “Freedom to” is to be free to act responsibly and, I add, to love.
Visiting New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty, Frankl commented that for completion there should be the statue of responsibility at the other side of the harbour.
Visiting New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty, Frankl commented that for completion there should be the statue of responsibility at the other side of the harbour
Living without restraints is not truly freedom; it is being slave to one’s whims. This is the very opposite of having meaning in life and, perhaps, one of the best recipes for anxiety and depression.
Fr Alfred Micallef is a member of the Society of Jesus