Lo and behold, Gen-Z is the generation with the most mental health issues by far. And sure, while I tend to give them a lot of shit for their outcomes as adults, it isn't really their fault how they were raised as children. For the most part, we have failed them as a society, by pushing profit over wellbeing, attracting attention to the irrelevant over the needs, and creating spaces where drama, victimhood and outrage are the ways to build social collateral. The digital wasteland that the internet has become has claimed countless lives, and will continue to impact heavily for decades and generations more to come.
But there is no going back.
We are products of our environment, but we can't control much of our environment, especially when we are children. We can't tell our parents what to feed us as a toddler, or how to discipline us, or what to let us get away with. We can't say as a child not to put us in front of a screen to keep us quiet, or let us join social media as adolescents. We can't choose the conditioning we face, and the lifelong habits that form from them.
Even when we mature, we are still under a spell.
But as me grow, as we experience, as we start observe the world, what we can do is start to change the environment in which we operate. To spend time working out if there are better ways in which to live, better spaces for us to learn how to improve through personal growth, rather than spaces to avoid having to grow at all. We don't need more safe spaces to protect us, we need safe spaces to learn what we need to learn.
The lessons many weren't taught in childhood.
But, every generation is missing a lot of the information and practice they need to get through life successfully, which is why the recommendation is to follow a path of lifelong learning. Learning practical things that facilitate a better life, not nonsense that has no bearing on wellbeing - or can even create a hurdle for it. The streams of digital content aren't bringing the value to the audience that people feel they are getting. It is an addiction, and like anything overconsumed, there are negative consequences.
Mental health is a serious one.
A child might be a victim of a shitty childhood, but at some point, an adult has to come to terms with it, accept it, and find ways to move on. Yet, I feel that a lot of the younger generations expect to be taken care of, that because they didn't cause the problems they face, they needn't be part of the solution. They are demanding everyone else change for them, cater for them, heal them, and accept them as they are.
It is part of the mental illness.
Another disorder to add to the list.
Entitlement.
I know. It isn't fair. It isn't fair to burdened by other people's behaviours. It isn't fair to be inflicted by illnesses caused by others. But, that is wear we are. No one else can walk in your shoes of life, so if your life is shitty, do something about it. This doesn't mean that help isn't available, but the work has to be done by the person - just like no matter how much someone runs or stretches for you, it isn't transferrable. Your mental health, your physical health -
Is your responsibility.
It sucks. Trust me - I know.
But at some point that suffering gets to a point where one has to realise that no one is coming to save you. For a start, even if they wanted to help, there is little they can do without you wanting to be helped, which often means, being willing to learn and change - because what you are doing now, isn't working. And then, for most, they have their own issues to deal with and likely don't have the time, energy, resources, or information required to help anyway.
Identify your gaps.
Identify what needs to be done to close them.
The world is complex in many ways, but we needn't live complicated lives. Break it down into pieces of you that need care - your mind, your body, and your heart. What does each need to function well, and what activities can provide and keep them in alignment. They each need care, but what each individual needs might differ slightly. Your mind thinks and repeats on what it consumes - so feed it well. Your body operates on what it consumes and how it moves - so feed it and move it accordingly. And your heart - your emotional self - needs quality of relationships - it needs love.
It needs to love.
Take charge of your life and stop living on the defaults you have learned to identify with as who you are. Because in all likelihood, you are not really that person at all, even though you might be behaving that way today. Surround yourself with quality information, quality people, quality conversation, and quality affection, and change what you do and how you do it.
Your current situation might not be your fault.
Your future situation might be.
Don't let it slide so far, you can no longer help yourself.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]