YOUNG DEATHS
Renowned film actor, Sushant Singh Rajput died a couple of years ago in June, at the age of 34. Another talented television actor Sidharth Shukla died a year back because of cardiac arrest. Pratyusha Banerjee, an actress, committed suicide a few years back. These are just the names of a few people who died young and tragically, there are many we don’t know about. In the past few years, the number of young deaths have increased drastically. According to studies, the proportion of people below 40 having a heart attack has been increasing by 2% each year for the past 10 years. This is just one key reason, others are alcohol and smoking, put together with irregular sleep, increasing amount of stress and a sedentary lifestyle that doesn’t promote the required physical activity. All these lifestyle changes are increasing the risk and incidents of chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes — some patients with high cholesterol who are in their 20s or 30s are also seen regularly now. In fact, the World Economic Forum has projected that 50 percent of people who die at a young age will die of diabetes and heart disease. If out lifestyle, which is the main reason behind this, is made better, then I am sure that the rate will definitely go down. Working class people have got such a hectic lifestyle that they can barely spend some time with family and have some leisure time. The immense workload and competition in today’s world had ruined some bright mind and caused millions of people mental health issues like depression, anxiety, hypertension, etc.
Lives of adolescent children is also getting demanding in many ways. The pressure to be the best in every field is eating many kids alive. Depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents, and suicide is the third leading cause of death in people aged 15–19 years. Mental health conditions account for 16% of the global burden of disease and injury in people aged 10–19 years. Half of all mental health disorders in adulthood start by age 14, but most cases are undetected and untreated.
All these statistics show one thing very clearly, we humans have developed a lot in terms of science and knowledge, but are not paying sufficient attention to our mental health. We are taking competition and the passion to be the best so seriously, that even a small setback makes us overthink about our entire course of journey again, whether we are doing it correctly? What fault do we have? We keep self-doubting. And then if don’t get a logical answer, go into depression. Young adults do that in their jobs or businesses, when everything is not on track. And children do that in academics, when they feel that they didn’t get their aimed goal.
We need to understand that all days are not going to be the best. On some days, we will be on cloud 9, happy about something and celebrating, but on others, we might be dejected and unhappy about certain things. We should take all that life gives us with a smile and remember that whatever happens, happens for a reason. We shouldn’t get disheartened and start questioning the meaning and purpose of our lives and try to end it, but work on how to grow stronger and happier from the situation. As after every sunset, there ought to be a beautiful sunrise.
