Troubled and Disturbed Youth

The Strait Times, Mind and Body, written by Lea Wee about Young and Disturbed

‘Young people in Singapore aged 18-29 are at a higher risk of having mental problems than older people, a study has found. 1 in 14 young people has major depressive disorder, as opposed to 1 in 19 for those aged 30 and above.’

The article then goes on to explain the symptoms of the illness and what are the steps that you should take when you feel that you or someone close to you is depressed (Let me save you the trouble and give you the answer: seek professional opinion.)

However, this got me thinking about what the possible causes for depression is and why has its incidence increased at this rate. Up to 20% of people experience some of its symptoms during a point in their life. Ten times more people suffer from major depression than they did in 1945 and that is not a result of chemical imbalance as human genes do not change that fast! It is estimated to be the 2^nd most disabling condition (after heart disease) by 2020 causing 80% of suicides in the world.

Why this increase?

Some of the simplest reasons are ones you may have read before but to be thorough in the subject matter, I shall do a list (because you know how much I love those!) – You are more than welcome to add your own reasons to the list by commenting below and I shall add those in later –

1. Depression is diagnosed more often because more people (medical professionals and laymen) are aware of the illness, recognise the symptoms in themselves or loved ones and get themselves checked out.
2. Social stigma is declining (not gone, but decreasing). This is especially true in Asian countries where the school of thought was depression was just a state of mind, which you could motivate yourself out of.
3. More reasons for young adults to stress. 
• Think about it, they undergo the most change during that phase in life, where they have to learn to be independent from their family, start new relationships, find a job and become financially and socially stable and settled. This list of changes was much shorter a while ago. Short or long term relationships did not exist and marriage was arranged by your family. Jobs were acquired through apprenticeships. Independence from the family was not a huge issue as travel was not a major factor and joint families were relatively common.
• While this may be a leading cause in younger cases of depression, broken homes and unstable family situations might lead to anger, resentment and self-esteem issues, all of which lead to depression.
• Youths are more ambitious to further their career and to earn more money, due to material desires and become successful.
• Young adults are presented with far more choices these days and while we are under the impression that variety is the spice of life, human mind is not capable of being stretched that far. People used to become apprentices in their villages, follow in their family business or choose from business, engineering or medicine. We are spoilt for choice and while the choices themselves don’t lead to depression, they cause confusion. Some of the adults oscillate from one interest to another, leading to minimum success in any of them and that MAY lead to depression. My father always used to quote an old adage: Jack of all trades but Master of none.
• Economic crisis affecting their abilities to get the jobs they want, which leads to difficulties in paying off loans which are higher as education has gotten more expensive. Fewer jobs also suggest higher competition.
• All of the above may lead to failure and some people can’t handle failure by themselves (for the reasons below):
• They may have never experienced it.
• Have the misconception that failures are bad and society will look down on you.
• A lack of family support system
• Or a family that is also supportive of success rather than failure (basically, every depiction of a stereotypical Asian parent)
4. Youths, these days, are having a cultural identity crisis:
• Exposure to global cultures leads to a modern mentality which clashes with the older generation’s cultural perspective regarding education, jobs, stability in life, relationships, all of which come under the over-arching theme of managing family expectations but still being true to yourself.
  -- Immediate Society vs. Global pressure --
• I’m sure many 2^nd generation young adults have had this argument at home: “If your cousin (or anyone in your age group) back home (original country of origin) can agree to this, why can’t you?” (This being all the topics listed in the above point.) A possible reason is that this cousin or relative back home doesn’t have that same exposure (which some people actively seek and some are very laid-back and can’t be bothered to) and thus, is completely influenced by his parents/peers who are all of the same mindset. This may be useful for reducing mental stress and likelihood of stress.
5. These days we are much more 'self-focused', as opposed to traditional societies dating back to the hunting-gathering days to Amish society now. The idea of considering the wider community to be more important than the self is almost impossible to understand for most people, but necessary human emotional and physical needs to fulfil.

This is just a short analysis as to why I think the incidence of depression has increased in at least 65 years. I’m sure I’ve missed some reasons but also some of which fit under these umbrella reasons but haven’t been explored fully. Please comment below if you have something to add. Would love to hear what the readers think!