Reclaiming the Loneliest Generation

Mental health is no joke, but sometimes keeping it light despite the challenges helps make things a little easier, at least for a moment:

To whoever stole my antidepressant pills, I hope you’re happy now.

My therapist set half a glass of water in front of me. He asked if I was an optimist or a pessimist. So, I drank the water and told him I was a problem solver.

There are only two times I feel stress: day and night.

Mental illness used to be a buried, shameful secret maybe as recently as a decade or so ago. Now, it seems to have come into the forefront in a defiant way:

“Since the mid-20th century, mental illness has become a leading cause of health burden, particularly among adolescents and emerging adults, with most disorders emerging before the age of 25. Over the past two decades, mental ill health has surged to alarming levels, with evidence confirming that the increase is not just due to better awareness or diagnosis but reflects a genuine public health crisis.” (source)

So, why Gen Z? It’s not like every generation hasn’t had its share of trauma including civil war, world wars, nuclear threats and cold wars, civil rights unrest, presidential assassinations, economic downturns, and a lot more.

Theories abound on what brought about this mental illness epidemic for today’s youth. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt hypothesizes that a transition to a “phone-based childhood” and over protection of children since the 9/11 attacks have made Gen Z “the anxious generation.” Haidt argues that the impact of these changes includes “sleep deprivation, social deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction” (Haidt, The Anxious Generation, 2024, p. 11).

Indeed, Gen Z has also been described as the loneliest generation, with one survey indicating three-fourths of respondents aged 18 to 22 reported feeling alone sometimes or always. (source)

What can worried parents do to help reverse this trend? Haidt offers four reforms:

1. No smartphones before high school.
2. No social media before 16.
3. Phone-free schools.
4. Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. (Haidt, The Anxious Generation, 2024, p. 15)

Who knows if this list can actually make a difference, but it may be a worthy beginning, combined with open communication and grounding messages like the one below:

“Mental health problems don’t define who you are. They are something you experience. You walk in the rain and you feel the rain, but, importantly, YOU ARE NOT THE RAIN.” ~ Matt Haig