There was a nearly 30 percent jump in drug overdose deaths last year, 75 percent of which were opioid- related, according to the National Center for Health Statistics . And the death rate from an overdose of them has increased by almost 40 percent.
These alarming statistics are by far the worst for any country. But the US is not alone in its opioid crisis. Around the same time period, opioid use among teens in Israel skyrocketed, accompanied by a surge in visits to emotional help centers.
Around the world, the problem is not opioid use per se, but the sense of meaninglessness that drives young people and teenagers to try to escape from reality. Today, when people have everything they need in material terms, the question of the meaning of life is becoming more acute.
This applies not only to adolescents and young people, but also to their parents. In fact, the reason teenagers can't answer their own question about the meaning of life is partly because their parents don't know the answer themselves and are just as perplexed. Because parents cannot provide answers, children are left disappointed.
Opioid abuse is only one facet of the problem. People everywhere are unhappy, depressed, angry and frustrated. That is why many of them turn to extremes in search of meaning: religious fundamentalism, extreme sports, violence and substance abuse.
Thus, the solution lies not in a particularistic approach to opioid overdose. It is better to build a comprehensive educational system that informs people about the changing reality and teaches them how to cope with it.
Education should begin in early childhood and continue into adulthood. It is necessary to organize social circles that provide people with social support, warmth, sympathy and empathy. The relationship with the group should be permanent and lifelong, providing people with a foundation to build on and grow from.
Gradually, people will begin to form new values. Instead of seeking meaning and satisfaction from self-centered goals, people will find meaning in relationships with others. Everyone will interact with a core group of friends who, in turn, will liaise with wider circles of support.
On the other side of postmodernism lies the new society , interconnected and supportive. But to get there, you have to squeeze through a narrow cavern where the light at the end of the tunnel is dim and unstable.
The pain that drives people to use opioids and other forms of escapism is the result of the pressure of moving from one world to another. On the one hand, the pleasures of the old world no longer bring the former joy to the suffering. On the other hand, they have not discovered the pleasure of reciprocating others. As a result, such people feel "locked in a cave" and are desperately looking for a way out.
But this is where the sign of change and growth can be seen: at the end of the tunnel is the light of an interconnected and caring society. If we break through and do not give up halfway, we will reach it quickly. If we delay, reality will push us through the cave until we find ourselves on the other side, bloody, wounded and beaten.
Any hopeless state, this is the absence of the meaning of life, of course, people are needed who will tell, teach, support.