Generation Z: The Most Mentally Ill Generation— But Why?
Growing up, it is common to hear that we are experiencing the best years of our lives. We hear things like, “You’re so young, you don’t even have real problems yet,” or, “Your generation is so sensitive, it’s not a big deal.”
Due to a lack of mental health education, many older generations believe that younger people are over-dramatizing their mental illnesses. However, that is simply not the case. In fact, in a survey conducted by The American Psychological Association (APA), Generation Z (born 1997-2012) was proven to be the generation with the highest rate of mental illness.
Out of the surveyed people, 90% reported experiencing poor mental health—but why is that?
Although there has been an increase in mental health awareness in recent years, many people fail to acknowledge the global changes that are affecting these statistics. For example, economic crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, and our highly digitalized society have been shown to have significant impacts on the mental health of Generation Z.
Ariana Wess, a 20-year-old college student, was brave enough to share her story with me about living life as a young adult affected by some of these factors. Wess was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and anorexia as a junior in high school, which she recalls severely affecting her life in several ways.
“It definitely put a strain on my relationships, specifically with my parents,” she sighs, “I always felt this pressure to get better so I wouldn’t be putting them through what I was going through.”
She goes on to say, “I decided to go on medication and my doctors required me to have several procedures done, which was not covered by my insurance. My parents paid out of pocket for everything I needed which caused extreme financial stress to my entire family, so that definitely made the pressure worse.”
When reflecting on this topic, Wess notes that if there was more government or public funding for medical needs relating to mental health, she would not have felt as much stress. A lot of times that she needed therapy sessions or doctor’s appointments, she was unable to afford it because her insurance company would not cover it.
According to the National Library of Medicine (NIH), unequal insurance coverage for mental and physical health is considered to be one of the major causes of the mental health decline in America.
Although there are federal laws in place to prevent this economic disparity, the Washington Post reports, “consumers seeking psychotherapy and drug treatment contend with administrative roadblocks, network shortfalls, and more-restrictive benefits than they receive in coverage for physical health.”
Aside from the outrageous medical bills, Wess also spoke about other financial issues that affect her mental health.
“Inflation is getting crazy,” Wess exclaims. “Not only is everything so much more expensive now, but I still have yet to financially recover from the pandemic, so that’s making everything so much more difficult.”
*Image from survey conducted by author
In a survey I conducted with ten random college students, nine people reported experiencing a mental illness, while one person was unsure. Seven of the nine people agreed with Wess’ point. Out of all of the global issues mentioned, 62.5% of people felt that financial issues are some of the biggest mental health stressors affecting them today. When asked why this was, half of them mentioned that COVID-19 played a factor in affecting their financial status, which has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Caleb Levine, a 21-year-old college student, also chimed in on this issue. He explains how almost everyone was financially affected by the pandemic in some way, so not much attention was given to younger generations. However, Levine believes that there should have been more concern for Generation Z specifically.
“As the next group of functioning adults in society, we really are the generation that needs to be thought about the most in that aspect because we’re the ones that are going to keep the world running,” he says.
As a senior in high school, Levine was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression. At the time, COVID-19 was hitting peak records and school was switched to remote learning. While Levine recalled that the pandemic allowed him to have time for himself, which was helpful right after being diagnosed, he also claims that it worsened his mental health after a certain point.
“Being alone was nice at first. I feel like it really gave me a chance to learn about myself and be comfortable with who I am,” he continues, “but after so long I went from being alone to being lonely, and it wasn’t healthy to be as isolated as I was.”
Mari Dias, certified grief counselor, Thanatologist, professor, and author, further validated Levine’s struggles by speaking about her experience as a counselor during the pandemic. As she specializes in grief and loss, Dias notes that grief is not just experienced after death but can be related to anything.
During quarantine, Dias offered free counseling to anyone that needed it. In order to schedule an appointment patients had to personally call her, and she remembers an overwhelming number of calls rolling in.
“I was getting upwards of 350 calls a week, half of which were people apart of Gen Z,” Dias says. “I found an exponentially higher amount of calls for sessions from Gen Zs who are grieving with the associated depression, anxiety, and in some cases death, as well as the loss of friendships, school, prom, extracurriculars—all those really important milestones in their life.”
Beverly Rich, an outpatient clinician and nurse practitioner at Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital, spoke a bit about her experience working with mental health during the pandemic as well. Bradley Hospital is the country’s first psychiatric hospital geared exclusively to children, and Rich recalls working with several patients who were deeply affected by COVID-19.
“It was a stressful event, and when stress is on the body our hypothalamic pituitary axis is on overdrive, which I think was probably a factor for many. For younger people who are in the process of forming their identities and coming into the world as adults, it had crushing effects on them because it disrupted everything—schooling, goals, and so much more,” she says.
Rich also mentions that the mental health struggles she witnessed people go through were not always just because of internal aspects. She explains how society placed excess stress on Gen Zs because older generations were in the same vulnerable position as them.
“We know that many adults weren’t handling things the best way since they were oversubscribed and stressed out,” she says, “and generally the older generation is supposed to be the sense of security, so I feel like that is one of many realms that led to this epidemic seen in younger generations.”
As someone who has a family member apart of Generation Z, Rich also witnessed how it impacted him first-hand. She recalls it affecting him academically and personally. “He is doing fine now, but I believe he would be in a completely different position, career wise and mentally, if it didn’t happen. It definitely slowed down where folks thought they might be at a certain point, and that can be extremely discouraging when you’re younger.”
Ariana Wess also commented on the fact that she felt both internal and external stress. However, she notes that it was mainly due to her increased use of social media. Since she was alone often, she used social media a lot more than she did before.
When speaking about how that affected her, Wess explained that it caused immense mental damage and led to several issues that still affect her today.
“Social media is this world where there’s a very fine line between what’s real and what’s not, and I definitely think the line was blurred during the pandemic because we all didn’t really know what we were doing or what to believe,” she says.
When discussing more about social media and our digitalized society, Wess had many opinions on the matter. “I think social media was the worst thing ever created,” she strongly states. “If you just simply scroll through TikTok or Instagram, you’re constantly seeing content about tragic things like 9/11 or school shootings. While those things are all really important, it’s incredibly damaging to be consuming so much of that information all the time.”
According to News Medical, social media negatively affects people mostly because of the spread of misinformation. However, the crucial role social media plays in the improper distribution of relatable information and mental health education also have an effect.
Source: The Claw
As someone who struggled with an eating disorder, Wess explains how social media played a significant role in her body image and believed self-worth. While she makes sure to note that her eating disorder did not only stem from social media, Wess claims that it certainly increased her symptoms dramatically.
“I think that looking at all these picture-perfect people every day, all day is not good for us at all. It puts us in a metaphorical box that we can’t escape,” she says.
In the aforementioned survey I conducted, four out of ten people suffered an eating disorder. All of those respondents related it back to the unrealistic standards set upon them in society, specifically on social media.
One respondent mentioned that because of their heavy usage of social media, they experience extreme self-esteem issues. They go on to explain that it has affected their social, love, academic, and professional life because they feel as though they cannot compare to anyone they see online and are not “worthy” enough.
When speaking about his story with social media, Caleb Levine expresses concerns around several topics—the first being the normalization of harmful language and glorification of mental illness. He says that when he was first diagnosed, he turned to social media for an outlet to find people in similar situations that he could connect with. While he was able to find some great people that he formed amazing bonds with, he also recalls seeing a lot of negativity and false information being spread about mental health.
“It’s really difficult and tiring when you’re searching for positivity online and you’re just bombarded by posts about people wanting to commit suicide or run away and all of the comments are agreeing,” he says. “I think people do it to be relatable, which may work for some, but we should be helping those in need, not just simply glossing over it because everyone feels the same.”
Levine also spoke a bit about the lack of face-to-face communication that Generation Z experiences because of social media and other advanced technologies. “I feel like I had better communication skills when I was younger,” he chuckles, “but in all seriousness, that’s really not okay.”
When it comes to our highly digitalized society, there is no doubt that it impacts everyone. However, Generation Z is the first generation that was born into this new-age, highly connected world, resulting in more issues. Mari Dias and Beverly Rich, both apart of the baby boomer generation, provided a bit of insight on how they are seeing these issues from an outside perspective.
Dias claims that she sees our highly digitalized world as more detrimental than positive. Although she brings up the point that social media can have positive usage, such as Caleb Levine’s use of social media to find support, not everyone uses social media for that reason. She believes that younger people, who are in a very pivotal point in their developmental stages, should not be exposed to a lot of social media platforms.
“A lot of Gen Zs look at social media to define their existence and form their self-schema around the feedback they get, which is a terrible thing,” Dias solemnly says.
Rich’s response was similar to Dias’ in the way that she believes that the advanced technology has its pros and cons. However, she also mentions that this “brain strain” affects Gen Zs in a scientific sense.
“It has a huge effect on brain connections and neurotransmitters because Gen Zs were conditioned their entire lives to be connected,” she says. “For example, dopamine is a chemical that we seek for reward, but there are studies that show that when our phones light up or a ringtone goes off, a level of dopamine hits the brain. I think it has destroyed aspects of life for younger people, like enjoyment, genuine connection, and just living in the moment.”
When speaking on how she believes Generation Z can live within our highly digitalized society without experiencing the attached effects, Rich recommends to use everything in moderation. Since many schools utilize technology and it is often inevitable to utilize in some way, she believes that Generation Z needs to cut down on electronic uses during down time.
Not every mental illness can be recovered from, and that is completely okay. However, these societal factors are increasing mental illnesses that otherwise may not have been experienced. In order to fix this issue, the only thing we can do is continue to raise awareness around the causes of this mental health epidemic.
Source: Generation Z Unfiltered
The following quotes and resources are for there to help anyone who may be struggling with recovery or poor mental health:
SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
How Are You, Really: Online mental health forum and resource hub
“Recovery is not linear.”
“Focus on mindfulness. Try to get enough sleep, adopt healthy habits, and find stress relievers. This can be so different from person to person, so try out a few different things that make you feel better and in control.”
“Never feel like you’re not enough because of your mental health. You are enough.”
“You cannot control or change what happened, but in the moment, take the steps do to whatever you love and realize you have control over your mind and your body, which are the most important things.”