There's a troubling pattern emerging among young people today. Rising levels of anxiety, depression, and disengagement are often attributed to academic pressure, digital overload, or a spike in mental health diagnoses. But what if these explanations only scratch the surface? What if, beneath them, lies something more profound—a more bottomless existential void? A lack of joy, meaning, and affirmation of life itself?

If this is the case, philosophy may offer something that reforms, measurements, and mental health campaigns cannot: a different language and, more importantly, a new way of being in the world.

In his reading of Nietzsche, the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze once wrote that we always have the feelings we deserve based on our lives. It's a confronting idea, but also a liberating one. If our lives are ruled by fear,

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