According to the American Psychological Association, average stress levels in the US have been going down over the past few years except for - yep, you guessed it - the millennials. Our age group, on the contrary, has become more and more stressed out. Teen depression and psychopathology are also five times more prevalent now as compared to the first half of the 20th century. With the increase in mental health issues, there is this increased tendency for people to dismiss the whole concept of depression, attributing our behavior to other things and telling us to just "suck it up." This is what I want to address.
The idea that our generation's high prevalence of mental illness is mostly our fault is a popular one. There are many articles out there about how we are a population of self-serving, spoiled and shallow narcissists who don't know how to handle life. We are often generalized as a group of young people who pop Adderall, smoke weed and get drunk to deal with our problems. Apparently, because we haven't lived through anything horrible enough, we haven't learned how to cope with things and instead victimize ourselves by assuming labels in order to get prescription drugs.
Before experiencing it firsthand, depression was something I was aware of, but never really gave much thought to. Up until I started seeing an on-campus therapist in my first semester of college, I tried everything to make it go away - exercise, more sleep, less sleep, healthier food - but nothing was working. I got so frustrated at the way I was living my life that I was finally driven to seek professional help. The following spring, I was diagnosed and started taking medication. To be honest, it was probably the best decision I've ever made because now I feel like I can finally function properly.
I feel the need to express how overwhelming it was to be ashamed of how I felt, angry at myself for having to feel that way and desperate to make it stop all at the same time. You see, even though the things that they say about our generation are a little mean, they do make sense. I wondered whether I was just weak, whether there was just some kind of flaw in my brain and whether I just kind of sucked at life.
A student who was interviewed for this article said: "Although it is true that there isn’t one event that caused it, because no one ever offered to accept that they were part of the problem, it made me feel like there was something wrong with me. In a sense, I had created this whole situation in my head. With mental illnesses being an unspoken topic, I had no idea that other people went through the same struggles I did. I felt like I was defective, that while everyone else continued to work under the pressure, I had cracked."
Is there something wrong with us? Do we have to live through a world war to be tough like our parents and grandparents? Why is it that, despite us living in so much more excess and convenience than the generations before us, we're so much more miserable? Are they right in saying we've been driven a little insane by technology and today's culture of instant gratification?These questions often plague me and, I'm sure, a number of my peers.
Even though it may have some truth to it, telling us we're being weak and complaining too much doesn't improve the situation. Conversely, it probably makes those who suspect they have a mental illness even more apprehensive about getting help because they feel they don't deserve it. This is a real problem; it's been proven that millennials have a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with mental illnesses, but are less likely to seek care.
Perhaps we are inherently spoiled and self-centered as a generation, but I firmly believe that we also have qualities that are admirable and good for the world. In the meantime, we will evaluate ourselves and work on improving. While we do so, please stop shaming us.