MENTAL ILLNESS AND GENERATION GAP

It is up for very little debate that the society that today’s youth live in is a far cry from the one our parents and grandparents grew up in. Apart from the obvious advancements in technology and landscapes, one of the basic reasons for this is that young people today are more educated than what our parents and grandparents had access to, have better jobs among other amenities.

Also, the world has become a ‘global village’ and over time, because of the inventions of social media and air travel, the social and moral landscape has changed drastically. Due to this, the younger generation harbors a significantly different perception and general worldview to many of the more senior generation members.

This difference in perception and worldview unfortunately, also filters into and is quite vivid when it comes to issues that concern mental health. Many of our parents and grandparents (some of whom are guardians) still subscribe to traditional and culturally-embedded notions of what a mental disorder is - in the rare case they are aware of mental illness, they attach similarly traditional explanations for it while ignoring the real possible cause.

With the prevalence of mental illnesses on a steady high among young people, it is worrying that the people whom they look up to for social and emotional guidance cannot provide them with such. Young people nowadays are bombarded with a variety of stressors in a world that is quickly evolving and requires high levels of social, emotional and cognitive competence.

The sources of these stressors range from pressures at home, school or work, the various responsibilities one has, emotional and social demands from friends or family and even social media; hence due to this, they are a lot more prone to suffer from psychological ailments.

Exposed

Not to say our parents were not exposed to their own forms and variety of stressors but the intensity of stress which younger generations are exposed to now is much higher than what the more senior citizens experienced.
This is why there is a rise in reports of anxiety, stress-based and depressive disorders among many adolescents and young people.

Quite often, a challenge that many young people with mental health issues face is the lack of ability to communicate or inform their parents, grandparents or guardians about their affliction. One of the reasons for this has to do with the ‘generation gap’ between the two - the young person may know of the preconceived opinions their parents or guardians may have regarding mental disorders and are aware that letting them know they have one will not only yield judgement and condemnation, but will also do very little to assist them.

Due to this, large numbers of young people who need psychological help opt to keep this issue and a lot of what they go through to themselves, and deal with it in a way they feel is most effective.
Most of the time, these ways of dealing with such issues are characterised by the use of drugs, alcohol and loads of other risk behaviours, which could be another justification for the high levels of substance abuse among our youth.
It is, therefore, very vital that well-informed common ground is established in an attempt to bridge the generation gap between young people and their parents regarding mental ill-health, which would create enough of a platform for them and facilitate easy communication between both parties.

This also speaks to the need for more awareness on mental health and the reinforcement of its need in our communities.
Furthermore, this would provide fertile ground for the development of a connection based on the understanding of what mental illness is, what it is about and how one can be given assistance, in the process shedding some light on issues that have such massive bearing on the emotional and social livelihoods of individuals in our society.

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