2023-12-05 09:33:01
These are data collected in the report “#Striped” from Manantial Foundation based on testimonies from hundreds of young people with the aim of investigating their mental healthto find out what worries them, what affects them and what they do when they have emotional discomfort.
But it not only includes the voices of young people, It also incorporates the analysis of secondary school teachers and educational counselorsas well as family contributions about how they view their children and how they approach them when they are emotionally unwell.
45.8% have emotional discomfort
In fact, almost half of the young people between 16 and 32 years old surveyed, 45.8%, say they have emotional discomfort, and of that percentage, in In 6.3% of cases, this situation is more intense and “could have clinical consideration”.
They associate emotional discomfort above all with feelings of sadness (51.7%), insecurity (50.2%) and loneliness (38.6%). And the behaviors they associate it with are isolating themselves (47.7%), not sleeping (35.3%), not relating (33.1%) and getting injured (30.3%).
According to the report, 47.1% feel nervous or restless always or often. 43.2% cannot sleep often or never. 38.3% feel alone always or often, while 31.5% suffer from anxiety.
11.7% of people surveyed say they self-harm and 10%, who have done it at some time.
Graphic from the “#Rayadas” report
Teachers and educators agree that the expression of discomfort has increased after the pandemic due to circumstances such as the lack of social interaction with peers due to confinement.
“In the pandemic…I think they were left in a funnel, with many things to digest in a very complicated period,” says the mother of a 16-year-old girl, one of the testimonies collected in the report.
Like that of a secondary school teacher, who emphasizes that she has found students very helpless in that sense: “As if perhaps suffering from some anxieties, some insecurities, some depressions, sometimes that, for me, are very linked to that confinement and the pandemic, to that insecurity, to that fear and that uncertainty that we had.”
They think they are worse
Despite these figures, three out of every six young people assure that the state of their mental health is good or very good.
Specifically, if 60% of them believe their mental health is good or very good, 39.5% of them respond in the same way, while 22.2% consider that it is bad or very bad by 8. 7% of the boys.
Report graph.
In all indicators, the percentage of girls is higher than that of boys, so they believe they are worse off.
What are the signs of poor mental health?
For those surveyed, the most relevant signs of poor mental health are excessive sadness (47%), isolation (46.6%) and self-harm (45.1%).
59% of young people who consider their mental health to be normal, bad or very bad identify with the diagnosis of anxiety, 29.9% with that of depression31.2% identify with other disorders such as eating behavior, obsessive-compulsive disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, while 2.3% identify with psychosis.
Of that group of young people who identify with a clinical diagnosis, 36.9% have reached that conclusion after searching for information on the Internet.
Seek help
In the face of emotional discomfort, only a third ask friends, family or professionals for help, while 25% do nothing. So much so that, according to the report, the most common response is to isolate oneself in 36.6% of cases.
Fear of rejection, fear of worrying their loved ones and the difficulty of recognizing or assuming that they are going through a bad time are the main reasons for those who do not ask for help.
And of the young people who do request it, half do so to friends and family; 25% to professionals; and 15% use the internet.
22.9% consume or have consumed psychotropic drugs to feel better, of which the majority, 62%, are girls
The influence of new technologies
Regarding the influence of new information technologies, young people claim that they influence their mental health.
They consider that excessive use causes them anxiety y continuous stress (31,3 %), decreases your concentration level (29,5 %) y sleeping problems (28 %).
EFE/ J.M. García
Your concerns
The report also includes the four concerns that most affect the emotional state of young people and the one that occupies first place is economic instability, in 82.5% of cases. Unemployment, at 72.8%; the future at a social level, by 70%; and access to healthcare, by 66.7%.
But also, almost seven out of ten are worried about not being understood by their family and 62.9% are worried about not being able to express their feelings.
Not being successful worries 65.2% a lot or too much and 61.3% have bad grades. Discrimination based on race, origin, gender or sexual orientation also has a great impact on the mental health of young people, at least 60 percent say so.
Emotional education, identifying discomfort
Faced with this reality, the Manantial Foundation emphasizes that the close environment of young people “must be able to identify and pay attention to the manifestations of emotional discomfort that are more frequent at this stage.”
As soon as to the use of clinical terms to explain discomfort, considers that it can lead to erroneous interpretationsso that it influences young people to have access to information that allows them to understand and manage their emotions, develop healthy relationships and make positive decisions for socio-emotional well-being.
“Emotional education can help prevent mental health problems and improve the quality of life of young people,” he adds.
Likewise, it highlights how important it is that “digital life” is part of the conversations of families and educators of young peopleso that it is considered another space for social relations for youth.
It advocates taking into account the impact that social aspects have on the decrease in subjective well-being and taking action because young people feel “insecure and scared”. Improving the living conditions and contexts in which they grow up is a measure that could also reduce emotional distress.
There are many ways to address emotional distress and mental health problems.
And it is important to educate them on how to care for and protect their mental health, and also how to accompany the suffering or difficulties of those close to them.
“The more diverse and accessible the help, the more likely it is that people will not be left alone with their difficulties,” he points out. the Manantial Foundation.
#ten #feel