The escalating volume of young people experiencing mental health disturbances is no longer news, the evidence is pan European. Prior to the covid pandemic estimates from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggested more than 1 in 6 young people in the EU had a mental health issue (2019). The statistic equates to more than 14 million people.
Post pandemic the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developments published it’s ‘Health at a Glance’ report showing in several countries that depression and anxiety in the 18-29 age group has more than doubled.
Recently research at UNICEF established suicide as the second most common cause of death for European young people. Almost half of young people in difficulty reported unmet needs in mental health care (49%), more than double the same statistic in the adult population (23%). On one level the statistics are understandable as young people often have more to learn about life than those who are more mature, nevertheless the volume of young people who experience often unnecessary suffering is immense.
This article is the first in a series for universities, students and parents designed to clarify what is really involved in neutralising this disturbing trend.
Universities have already made investment for the wellbeing of their students. The range of services include:
1. Student counselling
2. Workshops
3. Talking sessions
4. Guidance for academic skills
5. Mindfulness
6. Self-help resources
despite all these worthwhile efforts the trend is rising unabated.
These coping mechanisms do add value by re-balancing the mind or providing conceptual understanding about overcoming psychological pressures. Nevertheless the root cause of the psychological problem remains largely unaddressed…
How likely is it that these underlying psychological difficulties will be fully relieved if the real root cause remains unaddressed?
Spending more than 35 years understanding the drivers of individual, organisational and societal problems has enabled me to see that the cause in all those contexts is similar. Wherever we are failing to achieve worthwhile outcomes, the cause of our difficulties is directly connected to our paradigms (unconscious mindsets).
If we are to have more fundamental solutions we will need to take a deeper look at the basic assumptions of our ‘problem-solving mindsets’. For example, in relation to mental health we explicitly or implicitly tell our young people that:
1. They have mental health problems
2. They are victims of the range of different circumstances
3. They can be provided with ‘coping remedies’
How likely is it that these messages are going to make someone feel as ‘they don’t have a mental health problem’? Or aren’t in need of some kind of fixing?
Taking a fundamentally different starting point would enable people to understand:
1. that much of their distress is caused by their current paradigm (how they relate to their circumstances)
2. different ways to use their mind which bring about a very different experience
You can enable people to:
1. adapt their paradigm and so respond to their circumstances very differently
2. use profoundly different thinking habits which support a more useful paradigm
The mental health ‘solution’ is not one dimensional, paradigms are laid down through parenting, education and our life experience. So the solution lies in the hands of parents, educators who contributed to a young person’s current paradigms but in at least an equal portion it lies in the hands of the young person themselves.
If instead of focusing purely on societal rights and wrongs and academic or athletic achievement young people could be equipped with capable ‘fit for life’ paradigms. And so could go through life experience without finding it so challenging.
If you would like to know more about how to adapt paradigms to be more ‘fit for life’ join me at one of our free Events – https://achieving-momentum.com/events/
