The sense of hopelessness among youth

The period of youth is when hope, desire, and imagination are at their most vibrant. Young people design the lives they will lead, try to utilize their potential to the fullest for this purpose, and begin to reap the fruits of these efforts in the early years of their transition to adulthood.

Of course, this positive trajectory I mention depends on many factors going right: family, circle of friends, relatives, the region and city they live in, the society they are part of, and the country they reside in. Each of these plays a significant role in a young person's life and shapes the individual they will become.

I am a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and I see children and young people of all ages almost every day. Since the day I started my profession, I have been trying to explore the world of young people. Unfortunately, I feel a negative change in them with each passing day. Independent of psychiatric illnesses, I observe with sadness that there is an intense sense of hopelessness among all young people and that they believe they are living in an unjust environment.

When I received the offer to write for 12punto.com.tr, I was very excited. I thought that making the problems I hear from young people every day visible here, and being the voice of the youth, would be an opportunity to fulfill my responsibility to my profession and to young people.

Here, I will try to share with you the state of mind of the youth in our country, the difficulties they face, the anxieties of their families, and how the education system is experienced by young people and their families. So, why is this important?

According to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, 26 percent of our population is in the child and adolescent age group. This corresponds to approximately 23 million people. There are many countries in Europe whose total population does not reach this number. What I mean is that the population whose voice I want to make heard and whose problems I want to express here is larger than the population of many countries.

Think about your own youth. Of course, in every era, the new generation thinks they are being treated unfairly on many issues, criticizes the education system, and experiences anxiety about the future. However, I want to explain the difference in this current period through a dialogue I had recently.

While talking to a ten-year-old child, I asked what they did with their daily pocket money. They told me they didn't spend it at all, but saved it. When I asked, "What will you buy with your savings?" I received an answer that broke my heart. They were converting it into dollars. Nowadays, young people and even children are worried not about the future, but about tomorrow. They are so concerned with investing that they don't even spend their pocket money.  A large portion of the young people I work with have only one goal: to study or live abroad. The country we live in no longer offers young people the opportunity to dream of a future where they can stay in their own country. A greater danger is following the white-collar brain drain: the youth brain drain. Of course, it is not a bad thing for them to desire to go to countries that are scientifically superior to study; however, they want to stay there, produce there, and become one of them.

Even if we don't realize it right now, we are experiencing the opportunities provided in every area of life by the youth who attended university 15-20 years ago. The doctor who treats us when we go to the hospital, the lawyer we consult for legal processes, and the engineers who design the products we wear, eat, and use—even if we don't notice it directly—are all from the previous generation of youth who studied with hope for the future and lived and worked in this country. Looking at it this way, we can better grasp how important it is to listen to today's youth, solve their problems, and convince them to belong here again. While our ancestor's entire hope was in the youth, now...