MILLENIALS AND MENTAL HEALTH BY KERRY JOHNSON COUNSELLOR
To be classed as a millennial, you would have been born between 1981 and 1996. Followed by Gen Z and now generation Alpha. When we look through history, different generations of people from the Lost generation to the Baby boomers often share some collective struggles due to the state of the economy, common values, world wars, technology changes and much more. While all our circumstances are unique to us, there’s a lot of common issues that arise for Millennials. One being student debt. We were all promised, get a degree and your employment opportunities will be better. Yet many of us find ourselves in non-graduate jobs with salaries lower than we anticipated. Other issues we face are unemployment, caring for ageing parents, and of course housing costs. Many millennials would do anything to win their place on the property ladder like their parents did, but are unable to save for a deposit and left with no choice other to rent, making it difficult then to save. Another issue is the large advancement in technological developments over such a short period! Those of us born in the 80’s and early 90’s were born into a world where mobile phones and laptops were more of a mystery than they were an
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essential item, and through the years we have watched technology advance at a rapid rate, and we have learnt to navigate our way through this, while our younger Gen Z and generation Alpha friends and family know little different to this technological world! We saw the birth of social media, whilst still remembering a time before its existence! Many of us see ourselves as brands in a world of endless consumerism, and some may feel that an inability to keep up with technology may disadvantage them while being negatively impacted by the technology itself. We are subject to constant comparisons, trying to keep up a certain image, keeping up with what’s going on, when previously we really would have no idea what people were doing, and I’m not sure that we cared either? Simple CBT interventions can be powerful for helping us manage the technological difficulties. For example, learning to turn off your phone at a certain time can reduce anxiety. It’s your way of telling people, you’re not available at every moment of the day, and this is ok! This can be difficult for millennials as the real world and social media world can become blurred accompanied by the demands of the ‘digitalised workplace’
