As we close out 2017 and enter into 2018, I think it’s time that we start taking the mental health of millennials seriously. Millennials are becoming more vocal about the mistreatment and mental abuse we’re facing and we just seem to be getting swept under the rug and ignored. Whenever millennials voice the struggles we’re facing, we’re always deemed as dramatic and complaining, when in reality, we’re dealing with issues (and sometimes in silence) that are crippling our ability to maneuver at work, in social settings, or just society in general.
Millennials are living in a confusing time right now. We are constantly being told to achieve higher, yet generations before us aren’t giving us the opportunity to do so. Every day someone is calling us lazy and entitled, while many of us can barely make ends meet. When we do have a job, we get paid the bare minimum, we barely have health coverage, and most likely it’s not related to the area we earned our degree in.
How can we take mental health, especially in the Black community, seriously if our issues are being seen as less than?
Millennials are facing challenges that most people from older generations can’t fathom. For starters, millennials can’t afford higher education. The cost of college is getting out of control. Millennials are the most educated, yet the most underpaid generation in history. The percentage of us living at home with our parents is on the rise.
Due to us being paid at such a low rate, most millennials still depend on…
….our parents for financial and emotional support. It can be embarrassing for some because they’ve worked so hard for so little. What’s even more daunting is when your parents, older relatives, or elders, in general, talk to millennials about their life endeavors as if they’re doing something wrong. Many elders love to compare generational lifestyles and talk about how millennials aren’t ready for the real world when that’s simply not true.
We are ready. We are ready to work and we want to work. We, millennials, will not settle for less, nor will we work jobs that don’t fulfill us. We’ve watched our parents and grandparents live in the “real world,” working jobs that hate and leaving behind dreams due to financial and emotional restraints.
The problem is no one wants to talk about to root of the complications within millennials. Elders love talking how when they were in their 20’s they could buy a house, buy a car, pay for school, etc., but somehow manage to forget the economy and job market in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s was drastically different from what it is in 2017. It’s easy to talk about all your accomplishments when you didn’t have to go through the same obstacles to achieve them. Elders can’t belittle millennials and treat us as if we’re unsuccessful when we’re put in a position not to grow.
It’s bad enough we deal with these type of scenarios from relatives and their friends, but social media sends millennials the same messages our elders send us. Social media has become a breeding ground for insecurities. Every day, there’s a chance millennials come across a post that will trigger a current or past emotion. Whether it’s the praising of women who have unrealistic standards of beauty, people (making illegal money sometimes) flaunting their vacations, or even the number of likes someone gets on a post, the activity on social media has discreetly become a determining factor of success.
Millennials are dealing with the fact we are the most vacation-deprived generation of all time, we are in the most student debt, we usually don’t know if our jobs (if we have any) will last long or if there’s any growth in the company, and it’s crazy that we live in a time when a white high school dropout can make more money than college graduates of color. We are in a position where we have to unlearn traditional gender norms, reteach older generations how their religious actions were problematic and caused trauma to us, and teach the future generation how to convey their feelings and stress in a healthy way.
Before you ask about our life, before you compare generations and why don’t we have a job or aren’t in a relationship, please understand that most millennials are already feeling insecure about finances and life. Don’t pass judgement, lend a hand.