The number of depression patients in China has reached 95 million

Going to school, this classmate suddenly didn't come today, and that classmate won't appear again in a while... There are more than 30 people in the junior high school class, about 10 of them have this problem

Xiaoyue sat across from me, calmly recounting the sudden disappearance of her classmate, as if it were an ordinary occurrence. The "such problem" she mentioned is one of the three common psychological disorders among Chinese youth: depression, anxiety disorder, or a bidirectional emotional disorder that combines the two.

Before getting to know Xiaoyue, my understanding of the mental health status of Chinese youth mainly came from reports. According to the "2023 National Depression Blue Book" released last year, the number of depression patients in China has reached 95 million, of which 30% are under the age of 18.

And Xiaoyue's narration took me into the hidden corner of the heart of this Chinese post-00s generation that is unknown to the public.

Xiaoyue was born in a wealthy province in eastern China and is currently in her junior year. She is preparing to apply for graduate school. In the past 20 years, her life has almost revolved around her studies. Like many Chinese students, she handed over every holiday before the college entrance examination to tutoring classes.

Since kindergarten, she has been enrolled in idiom classes, ancient poetry classes, and actuarial classes; After entering elementary school, in addition to math Olympiad and English speaking classes taught by foreign teachers, she also had to learn several impressive talents; In middle and high school, her weekends were filled with various subject tutoring sessions.

Academic pressure is one aspect, but what makes Xiaoyue even more difficult to accept are some bizarre regulations in the school. For example, the "passionate early reading" implemented in high school requires students to read aloud as if they had been injected with chicken blood. In order to monitor the volume, decibel meters have even been installed in the classroom. A reading volume exceeding 90 decibels is considered passing, and classes that do not meet the volume standards will be punished for reading during meal times.

In Xiaoyue's opinion, this kind of "winning by arguing" early reading is meaningless. I just feel sore throat, sore ears, and my mind is in a mess. I can't hear or remember what I'm reading

After staying in the classroom for a long time, Xiaoyue often feels suffocated; Students who are unable to relieve stress may even engage in self harm. Once a classmate self harmed in the classroom, and the person sitting next to him was stimulated to have a depressive episode... As a result, a week later he came back with a bandage on his wrist and continued to go to school

Another time, a girl who usually had excellent grades suffered an emotional breakdown that night just because she didn't get the highest score on the exam. I heard her scream in the hallway, which lasted for a whole two hours. She probably couldn't hold on any longer

Will things get better when I go to college? Xiaoyue shook her head. She said that nowadays universities are no longer ivory towers of freedom, but more like an "extended version of high school". Not only do we have to study in the morning and evening, but if there are no classes on weekdays, we also have to report when we leave school, and if we don't go home at night, we have to call the counselor to explain the reasons. In the dormitory, there is also a dormitory head who calls on the dormitory every night. If the list does not match, they will be interviewed lightly or punished severely.

Each classroom is equipped with three cameras, and the artificial intelligence (AI) system will automatically identify who is absent and who is playing with their phones during class; The classroom content will also be automatically recorded and uploaded to the school website, and the teacher's lectures will be monitored throughout the entire process, with "less and less content available".

The library is no longer a place for pursuing knowledge, and it is almost impossible to see anyone truly calm down to read; 98% of them are preparing for postgraduate entrance exams, civil service exams, or preparing for IELTS and TOEFL exams abroad. It seems that there are only a few paths in life, and once you have chosen them, you will rush forward with all your might

Xiaoyue chose the seemingly safe option of being recommended for graduate studies, but in reality, the degree of internal competition is no less than other paths. In addition to assessing students' academic abilities, the requirements for publishing patents and papers in core journals are also almost strict in terms of credit points. You can't take a wrong step in any course, otherwise your ranking will drop directly; if you fall out of the top three, you will no longer be a good candidate for recommendation

As soon as she thought about the future, Xiaoyue felt a deep sense of powerlessness. From childhood to adulthood, I have been diligent and hardworking. It's really tiring, but I can't stop... I feel like all the efforts in the first half of my life were for the sake of pursuing graduate studies. How could I easily give up? Everyone was pushed forward, and no one dared to stop, so we had to keep running down

Xiaoyue's experience is also a microcosm of many young people in China today. They grew up under high-intensity academic pressure and a highly controlled campus environment, constantly running on a one-way track driven by academic excellence. The long-term closed learning environment and interpersonal circle are ostensibly designed to ensure students' safety, but in reality, they unconsciously deprive young people of the space to explore themselves and adjust their emotions. Emotions have no outlet, and psychological problems accumulate like undercurrents, ultimately becoming a collective pain for a generation.

In the government work report of March this year, mental health issues were placed in a more prominent position. Regarding the issue of youth mental health, the authorities have also explicitly stated the need to "actively carry out school sports activities, popularize mental health education, and care for the physical and mental health of teachers and students".

However, in reality, many schools still consider psychological problems as occasional events, attributing them to individuals' "insufficient stress resistance" or "lack of sunshine", rather than the high pressure and tension of the inspection system; A truly effective psychological intervention mechanism is still lacking, and the long-standing call for "weekends off" by students has yet to be truly implemented.

While discussing issues such as youth employment and educational anxiety, society should also turn its attention to those invisible corners. Psychological health has never been an "emotional topic". It is related to whether a generation can grow up healthily and whether a society truly treats its future with care.