Why are millennials so stressed?
Carrie Henderson, Staff Writer
Graduating high school. Moving to college. Deciding on a major. Meeting a lot of new people. Deciding who to spend the rest of life with. Graduating college. Finding a job. Figuring out where to live.
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These are just a few of the decisions that millennials are faced with right now.
Robert Gaddis, a psychology professor at North Greenville University, said that the individualistic culture has an impact.
Gaddis said that stress comes from a sense of not having control over a situation. Having the feeling of all the major decisions millennials are faced with placed solely on their own shoulders influences their stress level.
According to the article, “‘They can’t even’: Why millennials are the ‘anxious generation,’” living near family can help ease that stress.
The article states, “Today we instill independence in our kids and tell them to forge their own paths. But we’ve stopped telling them that doing so might be easier if they stay geographically closer to us. . .We underestimate the benefit of a nearby support network . . . It’s not a coincidence that a safe, stable life has often included remaining…close to family.”
Another problem millennials face, Gaddis said, is in having so many things to deal with without having developed all the skills necessary to deal with it.
One way to relieve the stress is reevaluating the situation, said Gaddis.
“[Stop] telling yourself they’re [the situations in our life are] so terrible, they’re so overwhelming, they’re so difficult. . . It’s not the objective circumstances of our life that makes us stressed; it’s our subjective evaluation of the circumstances and our ability to deal with them,” said Gaddis.
