Safety and Young People

I have been working in the field of public safety for almost 30 years and in my free time I am an apnea instructor, a sporting discipline where the mental component is key. From accumulated experiences in the field, I can confirm that today the relationship between safety and young people has notably changed.

Until almost 30 years ago, the dangers for a person between 15 and 25 years of age were limited mainly to a bad hangover. Psychologically the dangerous action would usually have a detonator, the need to be accepted, taken in by the group, to be part of. The wilder ones could use drugs and depend on them, but they did not have a good reputation and would rarely be considered role models.

Today the list of situations of danger is greater, because they are tied to dependencies, these are ones that condition a person to perceive the substance or situation as one that is essential to their existence. The category of these safety/young person statistics has increased to subjects between 10 and 30 years of age.

The possibility of getting caught in the net of dependencies lies in all social sectors, young people who come from “good families”, educated, well dressed and brilliant people. Without going too much into the scientific side, it is worth mentioning that the phenomenon of new dependencies consists in a danger, while in the field of Neuroscience the damages of these are continuously being categorised, at a cerebral level. This is due to an increase in cases of psychosis in young adults with relation to the past.

What has produced this rise in finding these dangers?

There are several factors, some are due to the time, for example, media and social media, in conjunction with technological developments. These allow a child to access all information, allowing them to interact with complex virtual realities, capable of interfering and conditioning their choices, without a filter from a family or institution.

It is like sending them to the amazon without an expert guide who can help them avoid the dangers or without a rescuer who can intervene in time.

So What is Happening?

Before the existence of a young person was marked by the presence of their family or an institution which could guarantee the protection from the dangers of society, today young people are almost always called to work in autonomy, images, words, models and behaviours that attract them and push them to imitate.

They are prey because to the eyes of a young person it seems like the only way of going on to be accepted by their peers and in this way to be recognised and gratified. The “Like” in social media seals this mechanism. An absence in a publication can create the worst feeling of upset in an adolescent. If we think about it, the game is the same, but today what is in play is greater. It is enough to think of the amount of negative stimuli (videos, language, consumerist models) and new dependencies which have risen in this time (chemical drugs, games of chance, super alcoholics, cyberbullying, sexting, compulsive shopping, continuous control smartphones, social media, momentary trends and extreme sports with draining entertainment).

There is a particular focus on modern drugs, today it is not necessary to risk going out to get them. They come to your door over the internet ( Darkweb ), with costs which start from 5 euros, equivalent to an allowance (young people call it the weekend dose), and often these drugs are not illegal, which is why they are not catalogued as forbidden stupefiants, as long as their molecular composition is cleverly modified by producers. On top of this, young people do not perceive the true danger, because they are sold as sweets or amusing stamps but in reality the damages are irreversible.

The greatest threat towards young people today, is the absence of groups that accompany them on a road of consciousness of the world that surrounds them. Families and schools are not prepared for the new challenges and the first ones would be the families who often are themselves victims of these systems of dependency. Often parents are more attentive of their smartphones than to the demands of their children or those around them. Therefore, while young people are not distracted from their interior existence by artificial entertainment, families and school must play their part as a solid base, for the development of their personality and guide them towards independence. It is true that the ability to say no is needed and to dedicate time to them.

How do we Help Young People today?

There are valid instruments to help in this road of healthy growth, one sure one is sports, practiced with a balance, the other, more innovative one, direct and which can be used by those who do not do sports is Neural Stimulation.

Neural Stimulation combines a daily 5 minute meditation, with the objective of training the brain to “stop” and re-focus on itself. Through the stimulation of some nervous centres, with the end of creating harmony within the system, that will as a consequence improve the functionality of it. The practice of this discipline will accompany the young person towards awareness of themselves and the reality that surrounds them, being more alert to danger.

In practice what happens is that the senses are activated in a balanced way, when this happens decisions are made with more awareness, thinking critically of what is good and what is not. It helps to gain responsibility of their actions, driving them away from distorted views. Behaviours become more regular, there is greater will power, less aggression and the willingness to listen.

I conclude stating that its use in schools, along with other activities and involving the parents, will help the process of reducing the effect of new the dangers of today.