Colm Fitzpatrick
Young people are increasingly feeling unhappy, writes Colm Fitzpatrick
The 21st Century has been a period of dramatic technological, economic and cultural progress, meaning that society is reaching new highs – but why is it that young people are increasingly feeling so low?
Almost half of young people in the UK have experienced a mental health problem and around 29% think that their life will amount to nothing, no matter how much they try, according to new research.
The findings, which were published by the Prince’s Trust Macquarie Youth Index, reveal that many young people feel pressurised, stressed and routinely experience a sense of hopelessness.
The Youth Index is a national survey that gauges young people’s happiness and confidence across a range of areas from working life to physical health. This latest report demonstrates that young people’s wellbeing, which dropped last year to its lowest level since the index was first commissioned, has fallen again to a new low this year.
Based on the survey of 2,194 young people aged 16-25, many individuals in this bracket are primarily worried about the current job market, with one in four working young people feeling trapped in a cycle of jobs they don’t want. 39% of people also reported that they don’t feel in control of their lives with 62% of young women claiming that a lack of self-confidence holds them back.
“This report highlights a staggering deterioration in young people’s confidence in themselves and in their future.
“The cliff-edge decline in young people not feeling in control of their lives echoes conversations we have every day with young people who speak of their fears about finding work, taking short term jobs over longer term careers and the knock-on effect of heightened uncertainty in the economy,” said Nick Stace, UK Chief Executive at the Prince’s Trust.
Belief
“This has to be our moment to redouble what we do as a trust and as a society. It is our fundamental belief that every young person should have the chance to succeed and when they do our country will also succeed.”
Yet, according to a research carried about by Dr Noelia Molina in 2017 on behalf of Vocations Ireland entitled, ‘Religious Vocations in Ireland: Challenges and Opportunities’, these figures are really of little surprise.
The study outlines that younger generations now have a ‘market mentality’ which has emerged from post-modern thinking. This has provoked an ‘existential anxiety’ and stress over the unknown; a doubt and inability to make choices; and an expressed sense of meaninglessness.
In the study, many interviewees, who were composed of religious and vocational directors and one lay vocational promoter, also spoke about the problem of the loss of spiritual language along with the loss of the Faith journey for young people as these are not shown in school anymore, with one interviewee stating that the school is a “vacuum culture”. By reducing the importance and transformative role of Faith, many young people consciously equate happiness with solely financial security or other materialistic interests, and so are more likely to fall prey to mental health problems.
Indeed, according to Ballyfermot parish priest Fr Joe McDonald, this crisis was first flagged in recent times by Pope St John Paul II who spoke of the “culture of death”. This is a culture which roots its meaning and motivation in social and economic motivation, rejecting the notion of the divine.
“I think that Western Europe has really been hit by a tsunami of darkness and that has manifest itself in a whole lot of ways,” says Fr Joe, explaining that low levels of aggression in daily life such as intolerance when driving or routinely insulting others is one example of this.
“We’re on the edge of Europe at a time of great spiritual darkness, so it does not surprise me that these things have become manifest in drug and sex addiction. It does not surprise me that people seek the pleasure principle – the hedonistic solution – to ease the pain,” he says.
Fr Joe also explained that in his experience as a parish priest, there is little to no link with levels of contentment and the social strata that you are in.
“The spiritual hunger I encounter is so deep and so passionate,” he says, noting that he repeatedly hears young people describing their lives as empty, whereas others reflecting on life often ask him ‘Is this it?’
This sense of purposelessness is reflected explicitly in alcohol and drug abuse as well as in the increase of people self-harming, according to Mater Miscordiae University Hospital psychiatrist, Dr Patricia Casey.
“I think the drug problem, the alcohol problem, we have the seeming loss of interest in religion, which are all contributing to a sense of purposelessness and to the absence of life having any meaning. That’s obviously a great shame,” Dr Casey says.
“We certainly see a lot of young people coming into the emergency department taking drugs and self-harming and things like that are at an epidemic level. Large numbers of people aged 15, 16 and 17-year-olds are coming across the doorstep of the emergency departments across the country,” she added.
Reality
The Irish figures reflect this reality with 75% of alcohol consumed in Ireland being done so as part of binge drinking. Alcohol consumption is also a factor in half of all suicides in Ireland and over a third of cases of deliberate self-harm, peaking around weekends and public holidays.
In response to the Prince’s Trust Study, SDLP Mental Health Spokesperson Mark Durkan has said that mental health is a massive and growing problem and that it will be the single biggest challenge for the next generation. He added that not only do we need to encourage people to talk, but there needs to be more counsellors in Ireland to make this possible. He also said that there must be a real focus on helping people help themselves and their resilience needs to be developed.
Both Fr Joe and Dr Casey believe that religious faith can be one way in which this resilience and meaning can be realised.
“Religious beliefs and practices are one of the cornerstones of resilience – it’s well recognised in the psychiatric literature on resilience – to be a resilient person, to have a purpose in life is a key aspect of it and that most often comes from religious beliefs of some sort. To that extent, it is hugely important,” Dr Casey says.
Similarly, Fr Joe says that existential problems can be ameliorated and transformed by the person of Jesus Christ. For him this encounter is more likely to come about, not through initially attending Church services or reading the Gospels, but from interacting with religious people in a non- faith-based context and in this way, they can begin to see the normality of religious belief in a friendly and relaxed environment.
“When you do that, when you meet them in a common place, over a pint, at football, on the motorbike, do not mention God. Do not mention Jesus and wait – wait on the question – and it always comes,” he explains.
“I don’t say to a young person, ‘You know what you need now, you need an encounter with Jesus’, not at all. I try to facilitate a space and get them to create a space in their life where they will glimpse Jesus. It works. I know it works.”
For more information on the Prince’s Trust Macquarie Youth Index, see: https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about-the-trust/news-views/macquarie-youth-index-2018-annual-report