News item | 10/31/2023 | 2:00 PM
Nearly two-thirds of all young people feel lonely. Yet they find it difficult to talk about this. To make young people realize that they are not alone and that talking helps, a new VWS campaign is starting. At the ‘Hey, it’s okay PodKastjes’ at schools, sports venues, libraries and cinemas throughout the country, young people can listen to stories from other lonely young people who share their stories.
63 percent of young people feel lonely according to the Corona Health Monitor Young Adults 2022. They have few or no friends. Or they have friends or family around them, but still feel alone. Because they don’t feel connected, seen or understood. Prolonged loneliness can cause all kinds of mental complaints. Such as uncertainty, stress and gloom. Physical complaints can also arise. Talking about it is important to prevent emerging mental complaints from getting worse.
Talking helps
Through the PodKastjes you can hear how talking helps other young people and how they do this. Jennate (19), among others, tells her story. She felt lonely for a long time between two cultures. “I come from a small village in Limburg. My parents grew up in Morocco. At a Christmas or Easter brunch at school, I was the only other person who brought food. For birthday parties I had to be home early. My friends from Limburg didn’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to do something. I couldn’t talk about it to anyone. I slowly felt darker and more isolated. I have now moved to Nijmegen and am studying psychology. Here I have found a college friend with whom I can talk about how I feel. What a relief.”
State Secretary Van Ooijen: “As a society we really need to pay more attention to loneliness among young people. We can’t let it happen that almost two-thirds feel alone, can we? Young people often find it difficult to talk about it, for example because they think they are the only ones. With this campaign we show that they are not alone. With the ‘Hey, it’s okay PodKastjes’ we want to give confidence to start a conversation. We can all do something, just offering a listening ear is sometimes enough.”
Also anonymous
Sometimes young people find it difficult to talk to someone close to them, such as a friend, parent or teacher. It is then also possible to call anonymously with a volunteer from, for example, the ‘Everything okay? Support line’.
About the stories
In addition to Jennate, Mees (24), Sarah (21), Isaac (21) and Dionysia (19) also share their story. In the campaign podcast they talk about what it is like to feel alone and how they discovered that they were not alone. You will also hear how they start a conversation with someone they know and how they feel afterwards. The stories can be listened to via the ‘Hey, it’s okay PodKastjes’ but also via, for example Spotify and social media.
For more tips and stories from other young people, visit the Instagram page @heyhetisoke or the website heyhetisoke.nl.