We Are Too Young To Be So Sad

The different economic and social trend with decidedly negative features is compromising an entire generation of young people, often sad. Everyone experiences it this way, but it is difficult to express it. Before the situation worsened beyond repair, we had the hope that our generation would not have to wait about a decade for the situation to normalize. Now we realize that this is an optimistic vision to say the least, but we go on.

The sentence that entitles the article has gone viral on the net and belongs to an illustration by Sara Herranz. The writer came to mind this illustration while watching the film “Beginners” and inserted it in her book Todo lo que nunca te dije I watch him aquí  ( Everything I never told you I keep here ). 

In this illustration, thousands of young people who have no health problems and who enjoy primary goods have felt identified, but who have seen their future turn 180 degrees in terms of academic, professional aspirations and independence from their parents. .

Despite this, we are too young to be so sad. Sometimes, letting off steam and dealing with an issue that has become taboo because many are ashamed of it is the first step to learning about the negative consequences of our times and identifying possible cases of depression or anxiety.

The influence of sadness in young people

Happiness and sadness are not all or nothing, every day we can experience different emotions and during the same week, we can go from very sad moments to others full of joy. However, the common denominator is the following: distrust of the future.

We must be aware that distrust is one of the main catalysts for a depressive episode to occur. There has been an  increase of about 15-20% of cases of depression  diagnosed in the current generation of young people compared to the previous one.

Many young people, after spending several years studying, have had to do a job unrelated to their professional sector. Others have had to emigrate and, despite this, have had to do low-skilled jobs in a foreign country. No one was prepared for this situation, which is why it was necessary to put personal resources into gear in a short time in the face of stressful situations that took over.

It is therefore logical to stop blaming ourselves and to understand that  the more educated generation is giving their all, with a courage that even suggests that they had been prepared for the idea for years; when in reality the situation has drastically changed in a short time.

We have to learn from everything that happens to us

It is not the same that this bad economic situation affects a person who already had a stable place and a defined path than finding it just when you enter the world and only receive doors slammed in your face.

For this reason,  when we are sad, we must think about what we are getting and what we are losing.  First, we need to learn from everything that happens to us. In this way we will develop a unique empathy and social conscience to analyze the problems of the world from many perspectives. Our resilience has developed at the speed of light, our emotional intelligence has managed to get us out of more situations than we have learned in years past.

We are more open, less naive and also more sympathetic. We value honor, simplicity and decency like few generations. We consider hypocrisy our enemy, as well as vanity and extravagance.

We are ready for change and we will do it better, we will leave another way of doing things to the following generations. Perhaps many days your psychological resistance will falter, but it will rise again. We are too young to be so sad, so we will have to get up and move on.

We are sad, but we are not alone

If a person goes through a depressive or distrustful situation in solitude, he is likely to experience it all with fear and shame; in reality,  in this situation, sadness is tolerated if we feel part of a network of people who are going through the same experiences.

We do not relax because it is a chaotic situation in general, but a psychological phenomenon occurs:  our guilt becomes more bearable, it dissipates, since we do not attribute our situation to internal, stable and global aspects of our person, but we realize that we it is a shared evil.

Faced with this situation, we must not isolate ourselves, because facing it in a passive and catastrophic way does not help at all. You have to get dressed, get dressed and go out even if you don’t feel like it; the urge will come later.  Outside is the opportunity to take back control of our life. As Jean Paul Sartre said: