Girl Power.
Now, I don't know all the causes, but for a very long time I have been pretty critical of the younger generation and their inability to deal with themselves. They spend an inordinate amount of time defining who they are at the theoretical level, whilst spending next to no time actually living life at the practical level. Sure, they say they are "in the moment", but all that translates as is hyper-focusing on the way they feel, with no real insight into why they are feeling the way they do, and next to no control over their reactions to their emotions. They seem to believe that acting on their emotion and intuition is some higher-level mode of living, without actually taking stock of their life experience and acknowledging that they are failing.
Antidepressant use among young Finnish women has surged, with nearly one in five aged 18–29 taking the medication last year.
One in five. That is 20% of female adults under thirty claiming that they are depressed enough to be on medication to manage their emotions. And don't get me wrong, I fully understand that medication can be useful for many, but before you get up on your high horse in defence - really think about those numbers for a moment. That is incredibly high and among a demographic that is apparently "living their best life" and "prioritising their mental health" by managing their work-life balance.
As said - Failing.
And it is depressing because this failure is made to look as winning, because they have bought into an ideal sold to them that doesn't work, but have also been conditioned to ignore the results, and defend their position vigorously, cutting out of their life all the "toxicity" that doesn't agree with them.
And while you might say "it is only twenty percent" on medication, that doesn't take into consideration all of those who are depressed, but not on medication. Medication is the extreme, so the distribution is statistically much, much higher.
It seems that the more we focus on our "mental health" the worse it becomes. And I think that this is because what people are actually doing is focusing on the theory of mental health, without the activity of what provides mental health. This creates a hypersensitivity to emotional fluctuations, coupled with an inability to emotionally manage, and conditioned to react based on emotional trigger uncontrollably.
If we were to look at the basic needs of the average human (and the vast majority of us are covered in the "average" category, despite many thinking they are special snowflakes), it would be pretty obvious that thinking about mental health is not going to lead to having mental health. And, avoiding stressors isn't going to lead to mental health either, if those stressors are natural parts of the activities that do actually support health. For instance - work.
I am not saying that work will set us free, but "work" in this case means any activity that supports our personal growth across the physical, mental and emotional planes. But, there has to be balance, because if we ignore many in favor of a few, we will become unaligned. And, another part of work is that it supports our place in society, a community, and the relationships we have with ourselves, others and all the components that make up a life. Again, imbalance here is going to lead to conflicts between what we do, what we think, and what we feel.
Is internal conflict a good foundation for mental health?
No.
But it is this personal conflict that is driving so much of the health issues, because people are setting up expectations about what they believe life should be and how it should work, but their beliefs are not aligned with reality. They think they are right however, so rather than changing their behaviours to align with the world, they blame the world - they make themselves victims of circumstance.
And no - this is not a problem for the ladies only. The men who have a slightly lower prevalence of depression medication usage, have plenty of their own issues that they are choosing not to deal with and instead choosing to blame the world as well. Like how they are hard done by as men, and women are to blame - which is a narrative that has been growing for a few decades now. Again, it is more victimhood mentality so they don't have to work on themselves and mature.
Immaturity is running rife in society.
No one wants to grow up, but life demands it of us from a societal perspective, and at a biological level, yet many want to hold onto their youth activities well into their adult years. Yet, we ignore the actual demands of our bodies and instead keep trying to feed our emotional selves what it demands. And in that immature emotional mindset, we are children demanding toys and candies and when we don't get our way, we throw a tantrum and blame our cruel parents.
Grow up.
For the most part, depression is a lifestyle disorder, not a physical one. It is built through our conditioning and development of expectations that are impossible to meet. With the technology available, we are able to avoid dealing with ourselves, and silo ourselves off from what we need to experience, to feel safe to the point that we are weakened and fragile, increasingly susceptible to disease of the body, mind, and spirit.
Depression, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, poor posture, weakened immune systems, many cancers, high cholestrol... The list goes on. They are symptoms of lifestyle, not the causes of illness. They are an outcome from how we live our lives, and no matter how much a person pushes back against what I have said here, the reality is that the majority of us Are failing to do what we need to do in order to be well-rounded, healthy individuals - including doing what it takes to have a well-rounded, healthy society.
We as a society need to understand what we need to do in order to be healthy humans and that will take some thought. But most importantly, we have to put it into practice and make the changes necessary to change outcomes for individuals. To put wellbeing at the top of the list for humanity, and actively working to make it the reality.
We need to grow up as a species.
Taraz
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