Depression in teens is on the rise, and looks set to continue increasing. According to Mental Health America, the rate of suicide amongst teenagers and young people has nearly tripled since 1960. Girls, aged 12 to 17, experiencing major depressive episodes are also now included within this number.
Mental health is becoming an issue for adults too. The consumption of psychotropic drugs is sky-rocketing.
Do we need better drugs?
Do we need to make drugs part of our daily diet?
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley, in his famous book 'Brave New World', foresaw this happening. He portrayed a society where drugs are used to create meaningless lives for all of Earth's inhabitants.
His Brave New World is a world where human dignity is lost. Any attempt to use the peculiar powers of human nature is regarded with suspicion, and any subconscious suffering derived from this loss of humanity is disguised by the use of drugs.
Aldous Huxley had quite a talent at foreseeing the future, and his Brave New World is exactly where we are heading. Many teens don't want to be part of such an inhuman way of living, and with good reason. The solution is not suicide, however, but rather it's about bringing an awareness to all, and rebuilding a more human society.
A more human society
A more human society is one which respects human nature, and here is where our difficulties begin.
What is in favour of human nature, and what is acting against it?
This is hard to say because ideas of human nature have been created throughout human history in order to justify forms of social organization. We could begin our personal investigation into human nature in many ways. My favoured method, however, is self-observation.
Although we can imagine many other ways to perform such an investigation, personally, I learned to be suspicious of any definition of human nature proposed by people who:
* Want you to accept their definition without allowing you to check its validity by yourself
* Have an egotistical stake in having you believe in this definition
* Are in position of power, and could lose it if you don't believe in their way of thinking
Unfortunately, we have to be very determined in our search if we want to find any unbiased source regarding human nature. A lot of biased sources will put themselves in the way, and the good ones are difficult to find.
My vision of the true human nature
I'm going to offer a glimpse to my vision of true human nature. I have been developing it over the last few years, convinced that real change will only happen when each and every one of us starts to see the truth about human nature on their own, rather than relying on existing learned definitions.
Paradoxically, children are among the best teachers of human nature, because they are unbiased.
Depression in teens is, in my opinion, as a result of the conflict between the human nature of teenagers, which is still unbiased, and the external pressure applied on them to be moulded by the sick and artificial form of human nature society proposes.
Modern man is a thing
One aspect of modern man is that he is more of a thing than a true human being. He sells himself. He makes himself attractive in the same way apples may be polished to attract consumers. He studies for years, learns languages, and polishes his manners all to increase his value, so he can sell himself at a higher price, like the apples.
His value is determined by the market. If the market prefers extroverted people, he will make himself an extrovert. If introverts are reappraised, he will make himself introverted. If the market wants happy people, then he will smile even if inside he feels anguish.
Huge attention is given to figure out what sells on the market, and the apple, sorry, the human being is polished accordingly. Any change in the market, and your value can evaporate overnight. This is a source of insecurity and anxiety.
Depressed teens don't want to be things
What has all of this got to do with depression in teens?
Depressed teens unconsciously refuse to see themselves as objects to be consumed. If they could freely express this refusal, they would tell us: "What is the point in living if I have to become an object to be consumed?"
I suggest we should allow them to express consciously this refusal, and learn from them how to make our society more human.
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