Editorial At Christmas, everything is as good as it is on other days

Editorial|Editorial

Christmas the message of peace and love speaks to those who do not feel they are Christians. The idea of ​​a Jesus child bringing light and joy into the midst of darkness is comforting.

Many stick to Christmas traditions such as lute boxes and rosaries, funeral candles, and the proclamation of Christmas peace. They bind us to a chain of generations and feel safe.

Christmas breaks work and hurries. Then many will stop for the first time in a long time. It is time to face yourself and your loved ones. Most get joy and peace of mind from it, but for others it can be distressing. Loneliness or domestic violence does not disappear at Christmas but can gain even more power.

We live in the midst of abundance, but still many are ill. More and more young people are depressed and anxious. A growing number of people also need psychiatric hospital care. Last year, an average of ten people retired from disability each day. Many of them are young adults who are just beginning their working lives.

The data is stagnant and raises the question of why all this is due. A coronavirus pandemic has increased nausea, but there were problems before that. Young people in particular are now daring to seek help more sensitively, which certainly explains the increase in the need for treatment.

Mental health problems have been eradicated through the ages. Fear of stigmatization has forced silence. For decades, the lives of post-war generations have been overshadowed by the traumas, sorrows and fears of war that have been silenced for too long. When pain is not allowed to be talked about, it is escaped intoxicants or violence. Now young people dare to break the culture of non-speaking, and shame will hopefully begin to recede.

Finland has already been repeatedly chosen as the happiest country in the world, but there is constant talk of exhaustion and stress. So it is worth thinking about what really exhausts us.

One reason may be the ethos of coping alone, which can prevent you from relying on other people. An individual-centered competitive society creates the impression that everyone should be the best version of themselves. At the same time, one forgets that life will not go smoothly without knocks, losses and paths.

It would be important for children and young people to grow up in peace, but the lives of many seem to be strained by competitive pressures at school, in hobbies and in relationships. More important than experiment numbers is how to grow into a human being.

It also seems that today’s young people are trying to conform to the norms set for them rather than rebel against them. Adolescence involves challenging the standards set by adults, but do young people in some and coronary viruses miss such a community experience?

Cognoscenti have found that young people are too often left alone with their pressures. Too early on, children and young people are given responsibility for things they cannot cope with alone. For a long time, there was a restriction on self-service that prevented a guardian from seeing the health records of a person over the age of 10 – just as if the guardian were the child’s worst enemy.

Parents give their children more time than previous generations, but has parenting changed to perform as well?

In schools, community spirit has weakened, especially in secondary school, when each pupil draws up his or her own reading schedule. There are no more classes and classmates to go through the school trail with.

Students are already required to know in primary school what profession they intend to pursue. For many, the matter is still obscure at the end of the second grade. If school and work seem to be a performance pipeline that only needs to be managed through somehow, exhaustion can be difficult to avoid.

Moderation was once a virtue that could well be raised as a way of life even now. No one can succeed in the pursuit of perfection. Accepting your own incompleteness is also a good foundation for a healthy mind. Okay enough in many things. Gentleness often goes beyond harshness.

At Christmas, things can be as good as any other day. Weakness is not shame but human. When you accept your own shortcomings, it is easier to tolerate them in others as well. Once everyday life has become sacred, it is a good time to reflect on what everyone needs right now to be well.

The editorials are HS’s statements on a topical issue. The writings are prepared by HS’s editorial staff and reflect the magazine principle.