Youth is no longer the best time of life
On hot days at the ladies’ pond on Hampstead Heath, you see many young women in their late teens and early 20s. They’ve got wonderful skin, bagless eyes and their lives ahead of them. But lately, I’ve found that the old feeling of “Oh, to be young” has faded. Instead of the best time of life, youth increasingly seems to be a vale of tears; not wasted on the young, but painfully foisted upon them.
Young people are encouraged to view every aspect of their lives through the prism of mental health. A survey of students by the charity Humen, found that half felt that “mental health difficulties” had harmed their university experience; 57 per cent of students had sought out university mental health services.
This is astonishing. When I was a student in the early 2000s, I don’t recall anyone seeking help from the university, though presumably some did and good on them. We had ups and downs, sure, but the thought wouldn’t have occurred to us, partly because we assumed ups and downs were part of the package. Most of us, despite some challenges – I was sleepless, miserable and anxious during finals, which I therefore nearly fluffed – muddled through and had a great time.
It’s not that I think students are making up their anxieties; they’ve also had to cope with the pandemic. But I can’t help but feel that the world is conspiring to make, and then keep, them low. Rather than urging them to test their powers – we are often more resilient than we think – their environment tells them to monitor any mental ill-health zealously, promising that it is waiting, poised, to help.
Since universities morphed into global consumer satisfaction centres, it’s not hard to see why, at a time of great mental health awareness, they began to market themselves as something closer to therapeutic hotels than old-school universities. Nor do they wish to be blamed for a repeat of, for instance, the tragic suicides at Bristol University a few years ago.
But perhaps the answer does not lie in ever-more “awareness”. Perhaps it lies in encouragement, positivity and expressing confidence in young people’s estimable – but currently downtrodden – powers.