Stress is defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” Even though some may disagree, stress can be considered both “good” or “bad”. Regardless, to hear someone say that they “feel stressed” is all too common. Stress is an emotion that everyone feels but learns to cope with; it’s typically short term so it eventually goes away. But, what many people fail to understand, is that when stress is ignored or pushed away, it can have damaging effects.
In January 2014, a young girl attending the University of Pennsylvania jumped off the top of a parking garage to end her life. No one, not even her family and closest friends, saw it coming. The following year, Cornell University lost 6 students to suicide and Appalachian University lost 4. It is frightening how common suicide is among millennials. Emory University reported that there are more than 1,000 suicides that happen on college campuses each year. Furthermore, the American Psychological Association found that millennials are more stressed than any other generation. Is it really possible that us college students are experiencing so much stress that we feel the need to take our own lives? And if so, WTF is causing us this much stress?
After some digging, I may have the answers to your questions. In a recently published article, “What’s Happening to College Students Today?” it states that the suicide rate in 15 to 24-year-olds has steadily increased since 2007. While this finding does not mean stress directly causes more college students to commit suicide, it does mean suicide rates may be associated to the higher levels of stress that are reported by millennials. It reports that anxiety and depression are the most commonly diagnosed mental health disorders among college students. As someone who is part of this generation, I began to dive deeper into the article and read that there are three distinct problems in our culture that may be causing our generation more stress than ever before.
1. Social media
The first key problem is the influence of social media on our lives. For a generation that likes to broadcast our “authentic” lifestyles, the way we portray ourselves on social media is shameful. We exaggerate. We edit our pictures. We even lie. Worst of all, we then compare ourselves to our friends’ and family’s posts on social media. This creates an unrealistic expectation of how we should and shouldn’t live our lives based off of how others portray the way that they are living theirs.
2. We suck at coping with failure
Straight up, we just don’t know how to cope with failure. We often work so hard to prevent failure and we don’t accept it as a possible outcome. We are the generation that grew up with “helicopter” parents, who were always hovering nearby to make sure that nothing ever went wrong. We have become so afraid to fail, that when we do, we don’t know how to evaluate our mistakes and learn from them.
3. We get praised way too much
Lastly, many of us have grown up constantly being told that “we’re special” and that “we can do anything we put our minds to”. We don’t understand that there will be disappointments and failures in life and that part of growing up is making mistakes and learning from them. How does this happen? By accident, really. Our parents’ generation was raised by a generation that endured two world wars and the great depression. They were taught that growing up and securing a normal, low risk job was the key to having a happy life. As many of our parents surpassed this expectation, they taught us that we can do anything, that the sky is the limit! To put it bluntly, many (but not all!) of us were raised constantly being coddled.
Before you get your panties in a bunch, check yourself. I’m not implying that everyone grew up being told that they are going to be the next President of the United States and I’m not saying that we have had bad parents either. What I’m trying to say is take a look at who we are as a generation and learn ways to deal with this stress. Because everyone handles stress differently, different things work for different people. However, to begin, I recommend putting things in perspective. Realize that everything you see on social media is not the truth. Learn to identify your failures, recognize how they can be used as a guide to prevent future mistakes, and don’t be ashamed of them. Lastly, put your life in perspective and realize that life will not be handed to you on a silver platter. If that doesn’t work, at least you can find solace in the fact that stressed is just desserts spelled backwards.
Featured image via Julia Kuzenkov on Pexels
