When people talk about young people today, the term discomfort is always juxtaposed, showing that young people represent a problem. This is certainly a limited interpretation of the world of Italian youth. This does not detract from the fact that for many, discomfort exists and is also manifested in the increase in drug use among adolescents. In fact, ‘latest report to Parliament on addiction once again photographed the increase in drug use among 15- to 19-year-olds. Alarmingly, the percentage of high schoolers has risen from 18.7 percent to 27.9 percent in just one year. Cannabis alone involves 580 thousand adolescents (24%) from Nps, new psychoactive substances (10%): synthetic cannabinoids (K2, Yucatan Fire, Spice), synthetic opioids (codeine, morphine, fentanyl), ketamine, cathinones (amphetamines, ecstasy), which are often consumed along with alcohol. People take drugs for fashion, rebellion, pleasure-seeking, distancing themselves from pain, normalization, “it is the honeymoon of those who have not yet paid the price of abuse,” says Massimo Barra, founder of the Villa Maraini community, who continues, “When you meet them, these kids seem like orphans, orphans of family, of enthusiasm, of meaningful relationships, of positive things, lost dogs without collars who need to talk, to do, to non-pathological people.”
Perhaps these young people do not play sports because it is possible that the effects of the drugs they have taken do not allow them to do so.
However, we should not think that playing sports makes one immune to negative psychological issues.The soccer scandal that has just begun shows us how young adults who have achieved their goal of becoming a professional footballer with a bank account with many zeros, are not at all happy and fall into the trap of gambling, of ludopathy.These are young people who experience a personal drama that finds its basis in personalities that are not very conscientious, not very socially responsible and have limited self-control.It means not having been educated against these pitfalls of life but also having a social environment around them that has not been able to guide them in their choices.
On the other hand, the adult sports world is not immune to serious shortcomings in fulfilling this formative role.A serious example of this failure is found, for example, in the sentencing of the gymnastics coach, who justified serious insults to girls as an excess of love. This ruling demonstrates the total ignorance of those who drafted it of scientific and cultural knowledge about the role of adults who lead young people. It is a precedent that will certainly be used in the future by those who use these sadistic methods of coaching.
Another disturbing fact concerns the low participation of young people with disabilities in sports.
This is a general problem that affects all young people, but for these young people the seriousness of the lack of opportunities is even more evident.It is not known how many young people with disabilities in Italy are involved in sports and how many are sedentary.In Latium alone there are about 22,000 young people with disabilities enrolled in compulsory schooling, I personally do not believe that the practitioners are more than 20 percent.
There is no reason to hope that these situations will improve, in fact there are no national projects that propose different ways to address these issues.