There Is Something Seriously Wrong With My Generation

How did we get here?

It seems like everyone of my generation (Gen Z/ younger Millennials) is suffering from depression, anxiety, or a form of neurodivergence. I have no clue how we ended up like this, and certainly don’t think it’s something to celebrate.

If you are aged under thirty-five and were born and raised in the West, it’s highly likely you have been diagnosed with clinical depression, anxiety, or a personality disorder. You may be autistic or have ADHD (or both). You probably are or have been on antidepressants. If you haven’t, you likely know someone who has.

I was born in 1997, grew up in London, and have witnessed a mass outbreak of mental illness among my generation. I have also experienced this: depression, anxiety, panic disorder, suicidal thoughts, psychosis.

A lot of people don’t know how to deal with the above, and find it frightening or uncomfortable to talk to people who have experienced this. For myself, particularly being in Alcoholics Anonymous, it feels incredibly normal. I have been having counselling and therapy on-and-off since I was sixteen. If one were to judge me by my medical records they’d dub me clinically insane.

My parents’ generation did not experience any of this. Yes, mental illness existed, but it was hardly a teen rite-of-passage. Now, it seems every other young person is dealing with depression, and many have had thoughts of wanting to kill themselves. I explore much of these themes across my fiction.

The amount of conversations I have had with people in my age group over the years about mental illness or neurodivergence is staggering.

This is the new problem with no name.

We are also a generation that have no clue how to have relationships. Situationships and casual sex are common. We endure these without a second thought. It’s quite normal to be dating a few people and be in an actual relationship with none of them.

While I certainly enjoyed my fair share of casual experiences, I can’t say that they were healthy or emotionally fulfilling. Sex is much better within the context of a loving, stable relationship, particularly for women. Even the minority of women who genuinely enjoy casual sex prefer to have monogamous relationships.

Dating as a young woman in London is a circus. The majority of people either don’t want commitment, claim to want commitment then disappear, or have no clue what they want. One of the reasons I sought-out casual relationships was because they were much easier and less disappointing than an actual attempt at something serious. It was never “a plan”. I don’t think anyone intends to rack-up multiple partners over the years. But somehow, it ended up being the case for me.

I would have loved to have met the love of my life at eighteen, and got married at twenty. That sounds wonderful, but it also is a pipe dream. I am almost twenty-nine, have no clue if I will ever get married and have decided (for many reasons) that I do not want children. I definitely don’t regret my life choices because I don’t think there is any point. Too much has happened.

I am part of a generation that is seriously broken. There are many things that have contributed, but as I have been saying, I wholeheartedly argue that feminism has had a massively negative impact. Modern men and women cannot stand each other. It’s common for women to make comments about how terrible and disappointing men are. Even though I have had countless terrible and disappointing (and even abusive) experiences with men, I refuse to join in on this. Not all men are terrible, and besides: women are just as bad. The fault cannot lie entirely with men.

I simply cannot partake in a worldview where men are blamed for everything, when based on my own life observations, women are just as dysfunctional, exhausting, and difficult. Feminism makes no sense because men and women are equally capable of behaving badly.

A lot of modern men now are complaining about the state of modern women, and how we are all unmarriageable. I think the problem is that feminism created two generations of both sexes that are unmarriageable. We have no idea how to go about getting married because half of our parents are divorced. It’s normal to come from broken homes. Society has collapsed all around us, and now young people are claiming to be genderless. Is it any wonder?

I know there are other negative factors beside feminism, but I won’t comment on them. I will continue to speak out against an ideology I believe has greatly harmed relationships between men and women, and hope that one day, we will see healing come between the sexes and romantic relationships vastly improve. If that happens in my lifetime, that would be something.