He is a student in the ‘Doctor of Pharmacy’ program at the famous university in Lahore, Pakistan. He laughs with friends, posts cheerful selfies, and tries to top his class-but behind that bright smile there is a storm of stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional exhaustion in his body that has made him mentally disturbed. This is the result of a battle between dreams and reality, caused by being forced into a profession he never chose. This is the unseen face of depression that is most common in our youth and is killing our youth silently.
In our beloved country known as ‘Pakistan,’ every parent dreams that their child should be a Doctor or an Engineer in every case. Like many young students in Pakistan, he was also raised under the weight of one dream: ‘to become a doctor.’ Under the burden of that dream, he continued his studies and completed his matriculation and intermediate with excellent grades. After that, he tried his chance for the MCAT, but unfortunately, he didn’t get good marks to be selected for Medical College, and the promise of his family to support him financially for MBBS on self-finance faded. They left him alone and broken, telling him to choose another degree he wanted. Yet, the burden of that one dream, once a source of pride, became the very force that shattered his spirit and destroyed him mentally.
On being forced, he chose the ‘Doctor of Pharmacy’ program and entered university. This unchosen path marked the beginning of his mental destruction. He couldn’t find the purpose and future of his degree and compared it with his dreams. He couldn’t be the person he imagined or even become the person others thought he was. This led him to stress and depression.
On the outside, he smiled, cracked jokes, attended classes, participated in extra activities, and did everything for his pleasure. But inside, he was collapsing under the weight of expectation, failure, and emotional pain that had made him a stressed and depressed person. His mental health was deteriorating, yet no one noticed – not because they didn’t care, but because they never truly asked. He has to live and spend his life without expressing his feelings and emotions to his family or anyone else because no one can help him, as he was not helped first. As he was left alone, he didn’t say anything to anyone. He knows he will be alone again, and due to this, he remains stressed and depressed.
This is not the story of one; in our Nation almost 90% of our youth is facing it and being stressed and depressed. They can’t express themselves but they are. Due to our bad educational system, every student is depressed and stressed and is living a life in which they are well and good but inside they are dead. Some are also facing problems due to their family. Both families and the educational system are responsible for this act.
One of the most damaging aspects of these situations is the cultural refusal to acknowledge the emotional pain of the youth. In our many families, mental health is still treated as an excuse that he/she is excusing or is pretending to be doing something. Those students who express their stress and depression are told to “be strong,” “stop overthinking,” and to “focus on studies.” On the other hand, our educational system, instead of helping them, is running on those rules and regulations that make the students depressed and stressed without any reason. This annulment only leads the pain further inward. This silence drives students deeper into emotional instability.
After that, the youth have to hide their pain in every case from others to prevent them from what others say, which adds to their depression and stress. The tragedy lies in how well the youth (students) hide their pain. They laugh with friends, attend classes, and participate in every other activity in daily life. But inside, they carry the shame of the failure of their dream, the guilt of disappointing their families, the fear that they will never feel fulfilled again, and the fear of being jobless their whole life due to limited jobs and no future in their chosen profession.
It is difficult to hide pain, failure, and depression behind a smile-yet our youth do this every day, while they think they should be dead, but smiling is the main point when they are struggling to survive, which is nearly impossible. Behind this fake smile, the youth is battling stress and depression.
Not every smile means happiness, not every failure is a failure, and not every student wants to be a Doctor or an Engineer, not every student/youth wants a job; they may want to be a lawyer, a professor, a speaker, a businessman, and many more. There are a lot of professions and options for a person to become and spend their life doing what they want accordingly, leave them to their own choice and you will see he/she will be a great person. As a society, we need to move away from pressuring our youth into lives they didn’t want and begin supporting them in finding meaning in the lives they are living. This will lead them to happiness and they will not have to hide their pain and not have to battle their stress and depression.
As a Pharmacist/Doctor (Doctor of Pharmacy student), I’ve come to understand that health is not physical – it is mental and emotional too. Stress and depression may not show up in lab reports but they affect each other deeply – both of these lead to hypertension and in my words it is a “Silent Killer”. Just help the youth and be happy with their happiness.
