Over the past two years, the Belén Foundation – dedicated to the guidance and support of families – has noted during its consultations a very striking increase in the number of young victims of self-harm. Given the scale of the problem and the alarming number of teenage suicides – … 76 deaths of minors between 15 and 19 years old during the year 2024, according to the INE, this foundation decided to investigate the perception of the meaning of life among Baccalaureate and Professional Training students and its relationship with despair and depression. This is how the project was born ‘Me before life’.
The report underlines that when a young person does not find a task that is beyond them (someone to love, a value to live by, a project, etc.), an existential void arises. And conversely, if it finds meaning, it results in a protective state of psychophysical health. Knowing and recognizing personal talent, as well as looking outside ourselves and being attentive to discover where it is needed, brings inner joy, even if we are in a difficult situation.
Recognizing your personal talent and looking outside yourself brings inner joy, even in a difficult situation.
Questioning the meaning of life, being disoriented… “is not an illness, but this existential void is a fertile ground for problems. The lack of purpose locks the young person into an egocentric dynamic of seeking pleasant sensations, which makes him easy prey to suffer a crisis”, explains María Ángeles Noblejas, doctor in Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid, advisor to the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid and responsible for the project. He explains that Viktor Frankl – neurologist and psychiatrist – affirmed that the existential emptiness is linked to alcoholism, substance abuse, crime, aggression, destructive behavior, depression and suicide.
According to the expert, the existential void is a very widespread phenomenon today. “During adolescence, many doubts arise about one’s own identity: who am I? What is my place in the world?… With generalized behaviors, social currents of thought, fashions…, it is difficult to find a personal response that responds to the unique, singular and irreplaceable being that each person is.”
“The more meaningful life is, the lower the level of depression indicators, and vice versa”
The “Me before life” research, carried out in collaboration with the Spanish Association of Logotherapy and the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, observed 700 adolescents (between 16 and 19 years old) from the Community of Madrid. Although the sample is not massive, it provides an important starting point for a rarely addressed question and can provide very valuable information to families and mental health experts.
Among the first data it appears that the meaning of life of adolescents has deteriorated, but where they find it most is in the family and, later, in friends. However, it concludes that 28% of young people have levels that would recommend a clinical assessment of depression and that there is a significant inverse relationship since the more meaningful life is, the lower the level of depression indicators, and vice versa.
In the current scenario, the use of technology and social media is also influencing the youth. “There are already studies, such as the one carried out by the Psicosoc group, – emphasizes Noblejas – which emphasize that the more hours we spend on the networks, the less meaning life has. And, at the same time, study, reading or interest in knowledge is linked to meaningful goals and can provide feedback (the more study/reading, the more meaning, and the more meaning, the more reading/study).
What is beyond doubt is that parents suffer greatly from seeing their child disoriented and aimless. To support them, María Ángeles Noblejas encourages them to consider life as a process and not as a definitive state; That is to say, your child will not maintain a situation of indefiniteness and uncertainty forever. “The attitude with which you accompany the process is very important. Have a clear awareness that each person must discover their own meaning, their unique way of being co-creator of themselves and the world.
However, he sends a strong message to young people: “Life always has meaning. No matter how difficult or elusive meaning may sometimes be for you; Surely one day, life will have an urgent need from you, there will be something that only you can do at a specific time. No matter how small or big it seems to you, only you are the person who can do it. Meaning exists; keep looking, get closer to what seems valuable to you.
The weight of monotony
According to the study “Me Before Life”, young people interpret their daily life, studies and weekdays as something boring and painful, and in turn, they appreciate that the most special days, holidays, weekends or vacations represent good times for them. What weighs them down the most is daily life, school routine and monotony. Adolescents follow a schedule that must be carried out systematically and they see little novelty in it, a photocopy of one day after another. However, María Ángeles Noblejas explains that living the same way every day “helps maintain order and avoid chaos; in this sense, having a routine life cannot be interpreted exactly as something boring, rather it is an inevitable process that will allow us to develop a personal and professional life.
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