Every generation in the history holds some specific characteristics that define them, which gives them their own unique identity which helps the upcoming generations to remember them. If we look at our millennial generation then there are a lot of things that we are known for. We are the last generation who got to watch the original cartoon network and we are the ones who have seen technology progress too much in such a short period of time. We are sometimes called the ungrateful generation while sometimes we are the generation of intellects. The list is very long yet there is one significant thing that defines our generation; our deteriorating mental health. We are the infamous depressed generation and the matter of surprise is that we are told it is not even important.
WE ARE UNDER TOO MUCH PRESSURE
There is always a pressure on our generation to excel in every field. It starts straight from the school times. A child is stuck between the cycle of school, homework, tuition and extracurricular activities. This leads to him not getting any time to engage with his own self. College life becomes an intricate web of deciding future career, attending lectures, going through internships, studying for further competition exams and maintaining a good reputation among the peers. Finally when the college ends and the person faces real life problems like paying bills and doing overtime, it is then too late to go back and live those earlier years when putting a bit less pressure on ourselves would have helped us in maintaining a good mental health.
IGNORANCE IS NOT ALWAYS BLISS
Our mental health is not only ignored by the society we live in, we ourselves too ignore it more often than not. Taking help seems like asking for attention. We do not hesitate before getting into a new relationship or making a social media post but when it comes to things like depression, anxiety, stress: we do not want to face these things. It is like we have this belief system where we think that giving out help might be a matter of kindness and even a social responsibility sometimes but asking for it is cowardice. We need to understand the fact that until and unless we do not ask for help it is almost impossible to get it. One cannot save someone who does not want to be saved.
HELP IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR ALL
Though there are drives and campaigns set up in order to promote mental health yet somewhere we are falling behind due to our lack of empathy and unity. On one hand there are individuals who keep on working to help those in need but on the other hand there are people to whom self harm is just an aesthetic Tumblr post and depression is another topic for making memes. If we do not help our own selves then no one else would. Most of the people from the older generation do not even regard depression as an actual problem. Therefore, if even the youth would not realize the importance of supporting each other then how would we even survive?
WE ARE RUNNING AFTER THINGS THAT RUIN OUR PEACE OF MIND
From relationships and social image to career and physical appearance, we are setting unrealistic goals for ourselves. We are running after a perfect love life that might not even exist. We do not reflect on the fact that love is a commitment rather than a feeling which ends up with us feeling unsatisfied and unhappy after a certain period of time spent with a person. We are trying too hard to fit into the society. We often forget that society is made from people not the vice-versa. We have a reputation to maintain and expectations to fulfill. The careers we choose for ourselves often only cater to our financial needs. Even though being financially stable is important but is it worth putting our mental health at stake? In between having an hourglass figure or abs and dieting ourselves to death, we often forget that the beauty standards are more of a facade than reality. We are stuck in a black hole of unrealistic expectations that we hold for our own self which does not only ruins our peace of mind but also leaves us in a continuous state of chaos.
One cannot go back into time and start over by putting mental health first right from when our generation was growing up therefore now it is high time that we unite as a society and regard mental health as something very important. The reason to why we are a depressed generation lay in our own self as well as the society we live in. Physical health and mental health go hand in hand. What we need to do is to be a bit more open and ask for help when in need; also we need to be there for those who find the courage to speak up. Healing is a two way process and often what we give out comes back to us. We need to work for mental health not only for our generation but also for the sake of well-being of the upcoming generations. We are the future and without supporting each other it is not possible for us to find our way out of this labyrinth of suffering. ¬â€
