I’m a member of Generation Y, or the millennial generation. People like me were born in the ‘80s and early '90s. But I don’t like to broadcast that fact. Millennials tend to get a bad rap.
Journalists and commentators love ragging on us. They say we’re ill-prepared to deal with life’s challenges. And that, as a result, we have higher rates of mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
These ideas have been coming up over and over again for almost a decade now. There’s psychologist Jean Twenge, for instance, who in 2006 published a book called Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before. “In past generations, suicide and depression were considered afflictions of middle age,” she writes. “But for Generation Me, these problems are a rite of passage through adolescence and young adulthood”
Then there’s the Slate article from a couple of years ago, titled “Why Millennials Can’t Grow Up.” The explanation, according to psychotherapist Brooke Donatone: “Their biggest challenge is conflict negotiation and they often are unable to think for themselves.” Last year, in Vanity Fair, Bret Easton Ellis called us “Generation Wuss.” Even NPR has asked: Are millennials too narcissistic? Do they stand a chance?
My friend Jay and I recently had a good laugh as we read through these articles together. “Harsh,” he said. “But also kind of ridiculous.”
Still, I wondered: Could it be true? Could it be that millennials really are more depressed and anxious than young people from generations past?
Is The Resilience Of Millennials Underrated?
Illustration: Katherine Streeter/NPR
