Published on: 04/04/2024 – 17:15
They ask you: How are you? She answers: I’m fine. But in reality, you are fighting a hidden battle, fighting your fiercest enemy: yourself. She lives in a spiral of depression and despair. You sink into a deep mental turmoil. A disorder that affects the will, and it is difficult to get out of it even if you wanted to. A disorder that makes you feel guilty and ashamed. You fear that you will be called crazy, insane, possessed, or schizophrenic, so you hide the truth from everyone. It’s mental health. A taboo that optimists see as the beginning of its collapse. Will the new generations break it? Or are we, as some believe, facing a generation more psychologically fragile than those before it?
Psychological health:
The World Health Organization defines “mental health” as an integral part of an individual’s health, through which the individual achieves his or her personal capabilities, can cope with the pressures of normal life, is able to do positive and fruitful work, and can contribute to his community. Among the most prominent psychological disorders of our time are: nervous breakdown, bipolar disorder, depression, and major burnout syndrome.
Read also: Suicide and the curse of severe depression!
Mental health in Arab countries:
According to the annual report on mental health for the year 2022 issued by the non-profit organization “Sapien Labs”, at the Arab level, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates came in the middle ranks in terms of the mental health of citizens, and other Arab countries, including Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, and Jordan, ranked last.
Read also: Humor and humour: Does laughter break taboos?
Generation Z
Zoomers, or Generation Z, is a term used by researchers and the media to define the demographic group that includes those born from mid-to-late 1995 to early 2010. These dates may be more than two years depending on the geographic region in question. It is also called the Internet generation, as it is a generation that emerged after the millennial generation and is characterized by a special ability to use technology as it witnessed the first appearance of commercial computers in 1995 at the hands of Microsoft.
Read also: Narcissism… and what kills from love?
Mental health among Generation Z
Compared with older generations today, the Gallup and WFF study found that members of Generation Z are more likely to report negative feelings such as stress, anxiety, and loneliness.
The researchers also reported that they found “evidence that the mental health struggles reported by Generation Z differ from those experienced by previous generations at the same age.” When asked to describe their current mental health or well-being, only 15% of Gen Zers aged 18-26 said it was excellent.
The study found that this was a sharp decline from a decade ago, when 52% of millennials in the same age group reported that their mental health was excellent.
Participate in the discussion:
Carolina de Oliveira, journalist and actress from Beirut.
Laila Akoury Dirani, a specialist in child and adolescent psychotherapy and president of the Psychiatric Syndicate in Lebanon.
Munther Al-Diafi, a writer and sociology researcher from Tunisia.
Mohamed Ahmed, a content creator from Cairo.
2024-04-04 15:15:34
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