Everywhere there are currently high standards of human mental functions. But we toil hard on the brain goes down. Can we shape a modern society where everyone feels ownership and confidence in the future.
Adults who speculate about the reasons mentioned concern about not getting jobs, economic crisis, major tightening of the labor market and a marked increase in income inequality. The society we live in, and presumably the future, is a society that places great demands on the brain. We have access to as much information, facts and experiences anywhere. We place high demands on fast communication, we experience constant lack of time and urgency. In short; today we have more opportunities than you can fit into our lives.
Moreover, the differences between various human conditions great. Some are stressed because they do not see any opportunities in life and have no hope of getting a job, while others burn out due to too many tasks or stressed apart by too many choices and opportunities.
Today's society wears short, more of the brain than the rest of the body. 40 percent of the day's sick leave due to mental illness. The perceived
mental illness is increasing, as is demand for intervention.
Among young people, we see signs of this including school nurses health interviews, reports from the National Public Health Institute and the National Board of increased stress, depression, self-harm and drug use.
Today's society, both in work, school and leisure, places great demands on human mental functions and
brains. We want to be social, outgoing, forward, we will take for us to create our own day and future every moment.
We can not do this, it is we ourselves, you and I as individuals, which is being blamed. If the difficulty is a bit bigger, or the individual has many difficulties and live in stressful circumstances, the risks of falling into long term sickness, unemployment, and stripped of opportunities for participation and influence.
This is not an inevitable development. Just as people previously learned to deal with challenges and pressures, as when we went from agricultural to an industrial society, from primitive to modern living conditions, we will also learn to fend off today's stresses. The only question is how many people will get hurt in the meantime and how much unnecessary time and energy we have to lose on the road.
Our
brains are still almost exactly the same as when our ancestors lived on the savannah. We have developed designs and strategies for thousands of years which have since become outdated in just a few hundred years.
Our brain is thus designed for a different life than the one we live in today, but the brain is extremely flexible, so we are able to adapt and exploit new opportunities.
Some limitations, however, we accept. We need to eat well, sleep and exercise enough for the brain to receive power, and recovery. Otherwise, we become sick.
The brain is like the rest of the body - we toil hard on breaking it apart. This is a problem that society must help to manage, not only be a problem for the individual.
This is our major societal challenge - both for individual health and for national growth and economy.
How we shape a modern and sustainable society where everyone can feel involved and in the future?