Media reports bring us the sad news of teen suicides every day. We also hear about young people dying in road accidents, drowning, or falling from heights while taking selfies. These tragic losses, while heartrending to families and friends, are also serious losses to society, which loses potentially productive human resources and creative talents.
These tragedies result from a combination of many factors, including personal attributes of young people, the biology of brain development at different stages of life, and importantly, the social environment in which people are leading their lives.
Shy, sensitive and introverted individuals are more likely to suffer emotional hurt, succumb to depression and develop suicidal ideations. Those with physical or mental disabilities are also often ostracised or mercilessly taunted. Children who are bullied, harassed or ridiculed can be driven to suicide due to loss of self esteem. Acceptance by peers always matters to young people, but rejection and bullying have risen to a whole different level on social media. When youngsters are digitally hyperconnected but emotionally disconnected, the will to live can be quickly shattered by feelings of isolation.
The pressure cooker of parental expectations often creates huge stress, and failure to meet these expectations becomes the trigger for self harm in the absence of patient hearing, emotional support and unconditional love.
The storyline of suicides in coaching centres is of an entrapped young person who desperately wants to escape from an oppressive, insulting and unforgiving environment and pleads with parents, only to be told to carry on for the sake of a career. How deaf can parents be when the plaintive pleas of their emotionally wounded children do not reach their hearts? The child who feels abandoned seeks escape through suicide.
Those running coaching centres often shelve their humanity when they treat students like machines to be tuned en masse, without recognising individual traits and capabilities. Students are made to race on speeding scholastic treadmills. They are prodded with repeated exam shocks till they cross the point of physical and emotional exhaustion. There is no space for compassionate counselling.
ALSO READ | Suicides in times of economic turmoil
Even in conventional schools, there is little attention to individual needs and capabilities of students because the teacher prefers to be an impersonal instructor rather than a guiding guru. Is it not time to close commercially configured coaching torture chambers and remodel our schools and colleges to become pupil-friendly?
Parental income and education, gender, caste, religion, regional and linguistic identities are among the many social variables which also influence the mental health of young minds. Family discord and domestic violence contribute to children devaluing life. As hate and conflict grow in society, unemployment rates rise, global economic instability blurs the vision of a secure future, climate change scorches the planet, and polarised politics prevents timely solutions to pressing societal problems, despondent young people fear they will pay for follies that are not of their making. Losing hope leads to loss of interest in life.
Apart from suicides, young lives are also lost due to rash behaviours which lead to fatal accidents. The adolescent mind is often described as ‘immature’. It is in fact a developing brain with rapid tuning and pruning of neuronal synapses to process new information and shed old information. The cortex of the brain, which controls and coordinates higher functions, develops back-to-front. The prefrontal and frontal areas of the cortex develop later. Since these control subcortical structures through finer sensibilities and deliberative decisions, adolescent brains lack the inhibitory influence that prevents impulsive actions. There is increased vulnerability, manifesting in the phenomenon of ‘hot cognition’. This makes adolescents and young adults prone to emotional disorders and risky behaviours.
As I wrote in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2013, this is perhaps an evolutionary requirement for human progress. Exploration, innovation and enterprise require risk-taking to achieve progress by challenging and changing the status quo. Tech entrepreneurs over the last half century have exemplified this spirit of ‘disruptive innovation’. There is a downside too. While rewards are highly prized, often as instant gratification, risks are discounted. Hence, a spate of speeding and ‘selfie’ deaths. Inadequate recognition of risks and craving for ‘pleasure’ rewards make them vulnerable to the enticements of tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
Young brains have a high level of neuroplasticity, which enables them to absorb, assimilate and apply new information. They learn new languages faster and are more adept at adopting new digital technologies than their parents. At the same time, there is inadequate cortical control over behaviours to avert or attenuate risks.
Also read: Society owes its children better healthcare
Parents need to enable children to gain self confidence as they grow, promote recognition of self worth, and help them make reasoned decisions about their future, whether related to education, employment, friends or life partners. Preferences of elders should never be thrust on young persons as diktats. Open discussions on perspectives and possibilities are preferable. Teachers should never injure the self esteem of a student. They must extend their hands to help, not to inflict corporal punishment. Peer support groups, which can help in counselling, should be created in schools and colleges. Physical activity reduces stress, while team sports, cultural activities and group work foster social bonding.
Recognising the vulnerabilities of young people, society must create safe spaces around them. Strict enforcement of laws and regulations on alcohol, tobacco and drugs is essential. Social media must be regulated to prevent bullying and harassment. Hate speech must be curbed.
Opportunities for education, skill development and gainful employment must be enhanced, with attention to equity. Traffic safety must be promoted. Domestic and street violence must be curbed. Commercial interests which lure young persons into dangerous addictions must be strictly regulated. Even as we give young people the space to grow, explore and gain experience to make correct decisions, we must ensure that they do so in a safe environment. Even as the tigress lets her cubs explore open spaces, she keeps a watch out for predators. So must we.
(Views are personal)
Prof K Srinath Reddy
Author of Pulse to Planet. He is a Distinguished Professor of Public Health, Public Health Foundation of India