Anthony Michael Murphy

I will preface this post by stating that most of what I will discuss here is anecdotal and not based on scientific research. While I will mention a couple of pieces of information that are backed by scientific research to help support my opinions, this is primarily an opinion piece. This musing comes mostly from my own clinical experiences, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, online reports, and discussions with my colleagues.

If we are to believe everything we hear about the upcoming working generation, it would seem that there is a mental health pandemic of sorts affecting young people and young adults where instances of depression, anxiety, and general neurodivergence are higher than ever. Research does indicate an increase in the prevalence of these conditions over the past two decades. Part of this is obviously due to more effective and refined diagnostic tools, more knowledge of mental health in general, more access to mental health care services, and more willingness of people to come forward with mental health issues, but I want to talk about other factors that I believe are contributing to an increase in mental malaise.

With the reduction in stigma and increase in knowledge of mental health issues comes more awareness of one’s own mental wellbeing. People often try to protect themselves from distress by not looking. A kid who falls and hurts his hand will sometimes not look at the injury. Someone who has just had a fun night out will sometimes not look at their bank account. A person who falls ill will sometimes refuse to go to the doctor. Living in ignorance feels easier than confirming reality. Over the past couple of decades, we have put a lot of focus on helping young people to better understand, better identify, and better see their own mental health and wellbeing. We’ve taught them to look.

“Looking at” our own mental health and wellbeing makes it real. And when we see something that confirms a problem, like the kid who looks and sees a gash in his hand, the partier who looks and sees an account in overdraft, or the ill person who goes to the doctor and gets bad news, it causes stress. Exacerbating this stress is the fact that, while awareness of our own mental health and wellbeing is productive, people generally had not been given the tools necessary to resolve such problems. Therefore, we created a generation of people who are better able to identify the issues but who have no coping strategies to handle them.

In addition to this, the maladaptive coping strategies of old had been denounced as problematic in and of themselves. But they were not replaced fast enough. I have heard many people claim that mental health issues didn’t exist years ago (assuming about 30-40+ years), or that people were tougher back then, or that today’s generation is weaker. I can tell you with first-hand information that such claims are simply not true. I have worked with people in their 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, and I can say for sure that mental health issues existed back then too. The reasons why people back then didn’t hear about it was because, in addition to a lack of those factors mentioned above that increased the prevalence of mental health issues recently, there were also copious amounts of maladaptive coping strategies that hid, suppressed, or distracted from those issues long ago. Chronic alcoholism, chain smoking, domestic violence, covert sexual abuse, excessive working, frequent gambling, all became methods by which people dealt with their mental health issues.

I think the area in which I hear the most complaints about how “this generation” is or “the young people” are is in relation to work. “People just don’t want to work anymore.” I have heard this many times. And there is truth to it! I have also heard many people in their early twenties tell me that they do not want to work. They wish they didn’t have to. Are they lazier? I don’t believe that. I believe there are four additional reasons for this.

1. Work used to fulfill a sense of meaning and purpose. When you asked most of those people from 30-40 years ago who they are, they introduced themselves as their occupation. Work not only provided a means of survival for your family, but it also provided a sense of place in the world and function in society. It was not just any part of your identity, it was arguably the biggest part. Furthermore, people back then used to have lifetime careers which meant they often held the same job, or at least same job identity (trade, skill, education, etc.) for their entire lives. Today, the average person will have 3-7 separate careers in their lifetime. For people today, their sense of purpose and meaning must often come from somewhere else, and their sense of self is usually something else.
   
2. Accommodations in schooling and education, but not in the workforce. With the rise in prevalence of disabilities like ADHD, ASD, and Learning Disorders, schools have become better over the past few decades at providing accommodations to students affected by these disorders – rightfully so – but the workforce has not. Therefore, you get people who depended upon or benefitted from accommodations for their disabilities in school that are not available at work. Flexible deadlines for the person with ADHD who struggles with time management. Solitary spaces for the person with ASD who becomes overwhelmed in stimulating environments. Augmentative and alternative forms of communication for the person who has a learning disability and struggles with reading and following instructions. Without the accommodations to which they are accustomed, these people have to work even harder than most.
   
3. The economy. I don’t think I need facts, figures, and data to convince anyone that the current economy is extremely unforgiving. Forty years ago, people were raising families of seven on one income with money to spare. Today, most families need two incomes just to make ends meet for four people. People today are working the same forty-hour weeks with far less to show for it. When you don’t get to enjoy the fruits of your labour, when you’re working just as much for far less, and when the cost of living is so high, people become very discouraged and disillusioned, especially when they saw their parents and/or grandparents do the same for much more.
   
4. Changing worldview. I’m not saying that life for people 30-40 years ago was all sunshine and lollipops, but I am saying that people today are far more aware of the atrocities of mankind and are more susceptible to the effects of global events than at any other time in history. The very idea of capitalism itself is becoming something objectionable by modern young people. Significant class discrepancies, the exorbitant wealth of a handful of people, the declining trust in public figures, professionals, and leaders have all contributed to young people feeling that the world is not a safe place, it’s not a healthy place, and that keeping to their own corner of the world is the best they can do.

It’s easy for those of us who are past 40 to look at the “kids” in their teens and twenties and complain that they don’t want to work, or that they are using their mental health diagnoses as excuses for laziness, or that they don’t appreciate the things they have, or that if they want something they have to work for it. It’s harder to look at the truth. Comparing the lives of young adults today to the lives of young adults 30-40 years ago and holding them to the same standards and expectations is simply not accurate nor fair.

Thanks for reading.