Lithuanians in statistics: they are killing themselves, they are the happiest in the world! – Respublika.lt

The United Nations, which determined the happiness indices of 143 countries, announced that Lithuania ranks 19th among the happiest countries in the world, while Afghanistan is the unhappiest country. Even more amazingly, Lithuanian youth under the age of 30 are the happiest in the world, leaving the Israeli youth in second place and young Serbs in third place. Apparently, the Israelis’ fortunes were calculated even before the Hamas attack last October.

The happiness index is calculated after assessing the social security, health of citizens, income, freedoms and level of corruption of a specific country.

True, at the same time that we rejoice in our happiness, the Institute of Hygiene announces that there is no shortage of suicides here. Although they don’t really match the face of the happy country.

According to the World Health Organization, Lithuania is the leader in the number of suicides in Europe and eighth in the world. What’s more – although the public is worried about young people raising their hands against themselves, in fact, the majority of people who kill themselves in our country are people who have reached the age of 75 and older. Last year, 527 people committed suicide in Lithuania. Of them, 31 are aged 75 or older. And 15-24 y.o. age group had almost three times less suicides than among the elderly. So why are there so many unhappy old people living in Lithuania, which has such a high happiness index and so many happy young people? Especially old men, because they kill themselves 3-4 times more often.

Mindaugas Stankūnas, a professor at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, thinks on social networks that the reason why Lithuanians of respectable age commit suicide is loneliness. M.Stankūnas shared the story of a Maltese volunteer, that a lonely old woman, who had decided to leave her life, changed her mind only because the volunteer praised the cake she baked. They say they would like to taste it again. Apparently, that was enough for the old woman to feel needed by someone and bake the cake again.

People of retirement age make up almost a fifth of the Lithuanian population. There is even a free phone line for singles to communicate with. It was noticed that the main interlocutors of such a line are widows over 75 years old, who have a higher education and live in an apartment building in some city. Lives alone. He talks to only one person a week – in a store with a cashier or in the stairwell, passing a neighbor. It is especially difficult in winter. He is afraid of slipping and getting hurt, so he goes outside less often. Even at home, they are afraid that they will faint and not call for help.

Psychologist, psychotherapist, publicist Grieving NAVAITIS notes that the Happiness Index study shows that Lithuania has made quite a lot of progress over the past 4 years.

“We could be happy – and that’s all,” said G.Navaitis. – However, there are very few people who are happy. As an example, I would also give a TV show where this study was discussed. The texts of the participants of the show, when discussing this study of Laimė, differed little from the texts if the program were to talk about the problems of Lithuania. And here is the contradiction that many people probably notice.

Let’s start with the rulers. It would seem that they could present the fact that Lithuania is in 19th place as a special achievement of their management. But what do we see? We see that those in power do not. It’s like giving up the possibility of self-promotion. Therefore, a natural question arises – why? In my opinion, because after saying “we did it”, we would have to answer further – “what did you do to raise the level of happiness in Lithuania and what will you do to keep it rising?” And here it would turn out that the government does not really have such an answer.

Therefore, the question is this – does the government in Lithuania create more problems, or does it eliminate more problems because it solves them? What would we all say to that? I think that we would hesitate to say what the answers would be more… Business, individual Lithuanian people, doing something with their lives, creating – they are able to achieve more due to their happiness and the happiness of those around them. They have achieved so much that even the government does not dare to take credit for it.”

However, we still don’t look very happy!

“It is a common narrative in Lithuania that we have to moan and complain about hardships,” explained G.Navaitis. – That’s why we like to say “let’s be “cowardly”, but fair”. And no one asks, why can’t we be both rich and righteous? And even following the ethics that created capitalism, we should say “if we are right, we will also be rich.” Here, of course, is a trifle, but sometimes real societal problems are hidden behind the language culture.

And another problem that emerged in this study – there was a big gap between young people and older people. One of the reasons why the LI of young people is high is the older people themselves, who think that it is not necessary to enjoy life, but to complain. And when they complain, they naturally indicate the reasons – people around them, the government, the former system. And then a young person, comparing the youth of his parents with the French or the English, knows that his parents, and especially his grandparents, lived very insecurely, very badly, and now he, a young person, can travel, study almost all over the world. While still studying at the university, young people are convinced that the salary should start at several thousand euros, and it is likely that they will receive such a salary, because there will simply be no one to replace that young person.

At the same time, such studies show problems. And one of those problems is the number of suicides among the elderly. Please note that the “Youth Line” is quite well advertised, well known, but perhaps not much is known about the “Old Age Line”. Its popularity obviously varies. And then we see how the problems of individual age groups are addressed.

When people over 75 kill themselves, loneliness will usually be the cause. In other words, the person was left alone – neither friends nor a circle of communication. The problem is not that older people lack material well-being, but that they also lack spiritual well-being.”

Aleksandras KOSAUSKAS, former physical training coach of the men’s basketball team and Žalgiris, comments:

The happiness of young people in many cases depends on the financial and social status of their parents. If parents are happy, they pass that happiness on to their children. If there is nothing missing at home, children can study, study, play sports, and travel.

But that Happiness Index still depends on what makes it up. The United Nations receives data from Lithuania. And I always think that those public opinion research agencies survey only Vilnius residents. Because I didn’t find anyone I know who spoke to those agencies on any issue.

I think that neither the youth nor us elders feel that we are number one or nineteenth in the world in terms of happiness. Only God grant that there will be no war. The topic of war is now escalating in Lithuania, so people are worried and tense. I doubt it is happiness.