Depression was once thought of by Turks as an affliction faced by urban people. It is now accepted as a fact of life for people from all backgrounds in every part of the country, as an explosion in the use of antidepressants has shown.

A recent study presented to parliament by the far-right Nationalist Movement Party showed that the number of Turkish citizens who described themselves as happy had fallen considerably in the last two years. Meanwhile, Aydınlık newspaper reported, the use of antidepressants has skyrocketed, increasing by five times over the past 10 years to between 60 and 70 million boxes of pills in 2019.

Sixteen-year-old high school student Yağmur Kaya has been taking antidepressants since she was diagnosed with depression and panic attacks. The treatment worked at first, shielding her from the ill effects of the frequent arguments and unhappiness in her family life, but she said the drugs’ effectiveness had eventually tailed off.

For Kaya, feeling of hopelessness about her future and the pressures of exams are among the things that trigger spells of depression, and she said these and a more general disillusion at the public obsession with material values were driving young people’s mental ill health.

“Our generation has been so affected by the stress of exams that we even feel stressed out sitting religion and culture exams,” she said, referring to school subjects which are considered relatively unimportant by many students.

“We’re spending the best years of our lives studying for exams. And even if we pass them, it doesn’t do us any good,” she said. “In this country if you don’t get into university to be a doctor or a dentist, you’ll end up unemployed. And what if I don’t want to be a doctor? What if I love theatre or music?”

A high unemployment rate has been a long-running complaint among Turks, even during the boom years of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s 18-year reign. But unemployment has leapt since a currency crisis struck the country in August 2018.

The last data placed the unemployment rate at 13.8 percent in December, with youth unemployment falling to 26.1 percent that month from a 27.4 percent peak in September.

This leaves young Turks like Kaya and 16-year-old İsmet Şeker under extreme pressure to perform well in their exams, while knowing that realistically even exam success is no guarantee for a meaningful career.

For Şeker, a young musician living in the southern province of Antakya who wants to study at a conservatory, a year of antidepressants and treatment from psychologists is not enough to resolve the issues behind his issues.

“Even though I use (the antidepressants) I know they aren’t solving my problems. For me, this system is a money trap for people,” he said.

“Some people use the drugs for show, others use them to temporarily feel happy. But they don’t solve the problem, they just stop it from getting worse. The system creates problems and makes people ill. So, if the problems were being solved, they’d have to change the system.”

Like Kaya, Şeker and his classmates see medical school as one of the few viable options that will guarantee work to students, and he said people from his class were trying their best to achieve the necessary grades.

“We’re a generation that can succeed at tests, but that doesn’t know poetry, music, literature or friendship,” he said. “Our generation’s quite powerless. People need a reason, something to strive for. But I don’t think anyone really has a purpose.”

Demet Yeral, who has for years worked as an administrative worker at a hospital, said patients sought antidepressants far more than doctors prescribed them, adding that he believed people used them to get temporary relief from their problems.

“I’ve used them myself, but I try to do so conscientiously. I know what’s in the medicine I take, but most of the people who come in don’t, they don’t think about whether it is addictive. I think this is the reason for the rise in usage,” he said. “Sometimes people come in here at midnight or in the early morning desperate to get the drugs, there’s no difference from drug addicts. When they don’t use them, they get withdrawal.”

© Ahval English