We must help our teenagers to overcome their anguish

IT’S tempting to think that teenagers have it so much easier than we ever did. Increased affluence, a liberal-ish society, travel and technology, the elevation of the humble rearer’s role into something expert known as ‘parenting’… so what’s not to like about being young in 2017?

But the startling levels of anxiety suffered by teenagers nails that particular myth. A survey of 2,500 teenagers shows two-thirds of them rating their mental health as ‘poor, very poor or average’.

According to the research in the Irish Examiner, their unhappiness increases as they get older, with 18and 19-year-olds being the most vulnerable. Overall boys seeming happier than girls although given the catastrophic levels of young male suicide, that might simply be a sign of bravado. Clearly we have to stop fooling ourselves about youngsters never having it so good.

Psychologist Tony Bates, who founded Jigsaw, the mental health facility for young people, spoke at my son’s school about the causes of their distress. ‘They are afraid that their lives have little meaning; that they lack what it takes to succeed; that they are a disappointment in the eyes of their friends and the adults who care about them and that it’s only a matter of time before those people reject them.’

Bates believes that listening to teenagers is the key to unlocking the secrets of their complex lives.

Ironic, isn’t it, that in this age of instant communication teenagers have never felt more alone?

IAN Paisley Junior became the unlikely defender of Martin McGuinness’s legacy, saying ‘it’s not how you start your life that’s important , it’s how you end it.’ But that pithy maxim was turned on its head at George Michael’s funeral which, reflecting his latterly hermit-like existence, took place under a cloak of secrecy.

Michael, right, was dogged with ill health and battled drug addiction. But he was also a superstar of the Eighties. No wonder so many fans were desolate at how the early part of his life was ignored.