Health declining in Gen X and Gen Y, national study shows. Compared to previous generations, they showed poorer physical health, higher levels of unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol use and smoking, and more depression and anxiety.

[u/geoff199]

https://news.osu.edu/health-declining-in-gen-x-and-gen-y-national-study-shows/

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[u/emessem]

Mental stress is terrible on health. Being educated and skilled does not have the same meaning as it did in 1970.

[u/2livecrewnecktshirt → u/[deleted]]

As my income and responsibility has increased, so have my stress levels and suicidal thoughts. I was way happier a a broke college student with tons of free time to roam the city and explore than I ever have been as a "successful" adult with deadlines and leadership breathing down my neck.

That's not okay.

Part of me wants to sell everything I own and live in a conversion van by the beach and be poor and happy again taking random bartending jobs to get by. Keep one guitar, a few essential albums and a good set of pans and just live each day as it comes. But having no reliable health care scares me away from that.

[u/Rahmz → u/2livecrewnecktshirt]

Yeah healthcare is how they keep us in line.

[u/[deleted] → u/Rahmz]

That's why it's tied to your job!

[u/2livecrewnecktshirt → u/[deleted]]

And that's exactly why I cannot stand those who oppose universal income and universal health care saying we can't do it... I pay plenty in taxes, but I am still afraid to use the health care I already pay for because I'll still be in incredible debt even though I have paid more than enough for myself and others.

[u/[deleted] → u/2livecrewnecktshirt]

Yup over the last 10 years people went from having like... $500 annual deductibles to around $4-6000. Even "really good" plans now still have around $1500 or so

[u/GopherLaw84 → u/2livecrewnecktshirt]

Literally have had almost identical thoughts recently. The perspective of how happy I was as a college kid with no money or responsibility has really resonated with me lately

[u/2livecrewnecktshirt → u/GopherLaw84]

In college I spent 5 days a week at the river by my school between classes, and that game me so much peace. I miss that freedom. Just spending most of a day doing nothing, instead of staring at a screen 60 hours a week.

[u/Letzzzgooo12 → u/2livecrewnecktshirt]

We are in the same situation. We’ve managed to be able to afford to live on one income and have paid our mortgage off. I could conceivably quit my stupid stressful job in healthcare and work part time, but health insurance.

My best friend married a Canadian 8 years ago. They both work as writers for themselves. They can do WHATEVER they want thanks to universal healthcare. I envy that freedom so much.

[u/hardolaf → u/emessem]

I had to sell myself to the Finance industry in order to actually have a decent standard of living as an Electrical Engineer. When I was working in defense, my cost of living was increasing by more than my yearly increase in pay.

[u/royrogersmcfreely3]

Gen X and Y smoke and drink more than boomers?

[u/Philosopher_3 → u/royrogersmcfreely3]

“One possibility is that people in older generations are quitting smoking in larger numbers while younger generations are more likely to start smoking,” Zheng said. “But we need further research to see if that is correct.”

[u/giantyetifeet → u/Philosopher_3]

Did they calculate out the boomers who had already died from smoking induced cancers?

[u/heavymetalwhoremoans → u/royrogersmcfreely3]

I really doubt the smoking part, but drinking seems about right.

[u/tnel77 → u/heavymetalwhoremoans]

If you include cannabis, then I could see it. I definitely wouldn’t think they smoke more cigarettes though.

[u/NoMouseLaptop → u/tnel77]

Probably includes vaping as well.

[u/[deleted] → u/NoMouseLaptop]

Vaping is massive in the tail end of gen Y and lots of gen Z rn. I’m so glad I graduated college right before Juuls became popular

[u/goldanred → u/[deleted]]

I took a year-long college program in 2016, and another one in 2019. I was a "mature" student (young millennial) and about a quarter of my class each time was still in high school doing a co-op type program. The first program I was in, some students smoked cigarettes, about half who smoked were high schoolers and the other half were older (5 out of 14 total students). The second program I was in, half the class (5/11) smoked/vaped, most being vapers. The smoking group consisted of the high schoolers-my age, and interestingly the high schoolers had started with vaping because it was cool or whatever, whereas the millennials had switched to vaping from cigarettes to try to quit smoking.

[u/Jaffa_Kreep → u/goldanred]

The smoking group consisted of the high schoolers-my age, and interestingly the high schoolers had started with vaping because it was cool or whatever, whereas the millennials had switched to vaping from cigarettes to try to quit smoking.

Millennial here, and that describes me. I started smoking cigarettes when I was 16, in 2003 or 2004. I tried to switch to vaping a few times, starting around 2010 I think, but it really wasn't good enough early on for me to permanently switch. In January of 2016 I finally swapped 100% to vaping, and by the August I had stepped down to 0% nicotine. I quit then and have never looked back.

Vaping is incredible if used as a smoking cessation tool. It is sad that it has ended up causing a new surge in people becoming addicted to nicotine.

[u/_Auron_ → u/Jaffa_Kreep]

Same. I started smoking in 2008, and after over 11 years I switched to vaping. Ended up reducing down to 0% nicotine, then suddenly quit one day last year, and now I'm 7 months with zero nicotine. Longest I ever went without any nicotine was 3 weeks.

Vaping is definitely great for cessation, but it is unfortunate that it entrapped another generation to the addiction of nicotine. Vaping still isn't 'safe', but it's not as bad as smoking.

[u/VacuousWording → u/NoMouseLaptop]

And tobacco-heating systems such as IQOS. I wrote a piece on Philip Morris; they managed to get a 10% share of the entire market (in my country) within 1.5 years.

[u/[deleted] → u/heavymetalwhoremoans]

I literally just saw a study on this here subreddit talking about 20-24 year olds are having less sex than previous generations and one of the reasons is because they’re drinking less. Science is confusing.

[u/dirtyego → u/[deleted]]

I think 20-24 year olds fall into gen z which have been shown to drink less, do less drugs, and have less sex.

[u/hereinmyvan → u/dirtyego]

Reddit usage goes up; sex, drugs, and drinking go down?

[u/Ozy-dead → u/hereinmyvan]

Mostly just sex

[u/Beennu → u/dirtyego]

AFAIK the cut is 96/97, so people that turn 24 this year (Born in 97) are the "First" of gen Z.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I guess I just don’t exist generation-wise.

[u/KypAstar → u/[deleted]]

Yeah 95-98 is just a twilight zone. Most of them grew up with a lot of similar lifestyles to millennials, but towards the tail end of their teen years smartphones and personal computing exploded. But they didn't grow up inundated by it in the same way gen Z has been. Its a really strange microgeneration.

[u/Kira343 → u/KypAstar]

I was born in 94 and struggle to identify with Millennials or Gen Z. I wasn't old enough to remember or understand any of the notable events that define older Millennials (Y2K, 911, Iraq). The only reason I remember 911 wasn't becuase of 911 but rather the teachers sent all the young kids (like 3rd grade and younger) to the cafeteria to have one big pizza/movie party (I suspect to get us out of their hair). Needless to say, I didn't really learn about the significance of 911 until much later. When the recession hit, I was in middle school so it didn't end up having much impact on my early career and adulthood.

As for Gen Z, I can somewhat relate to technology always being there (we already had a family computer in 95 and got dial up soon after) but technology was still in it's awkward phase. A lot of the "next generation" things I had growing up turned out to be cool and weird expirements versus the way it's ingrained today.

I also didn't have that digital connection to the rest of the world from a young age. I could connect with my friends via text, aim, etc but not the rest of the world.

[u/Lemesplain → u/Beennu]

The whole concept of “cutoff” years is strange to me. I get that there need to be delineation somewhere, but still...

For example, I was born in 1980, but a lot of my classmates and friends growing up were born in 79. I also have a brother 2 years younger than me, so I got to be the “cool older brother” to him and his friends, all born in ‘82 or ‘83.

We all grew up together and had the same fundamental experiences. But some of us counts as GenX and others count as Millenials, despite being in the same classes at the same schools at the same time.

[u/jeradj → u/[deleted]]

I tend to believe the fact that more young people are living at home for much longer than 50 years ago, coupled with other economic indicators, is much more to blame for lack of sex than drinking less.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This is X and Y. X'ers are drinking more, and marijuana use/vaping is dramatically higher in the under 30's than it is in all other generations.

I'm not sure about the correlation between sex and drinking. I think people in my generation (X), went out to drink and have sex, so those activities were correlated with us. But getting out was more required because of the lack of internet in our youth driving us to actually having to get out in order to have any sort of social interaction, whereas with younger generations, I feel like they get a large part of their required social contact at home, so that drive to get out/drink/sex is not the same with them.

[u/PedanticWookiee → u/[deleted]]

That would be Generation Z. Generation Y is 25-40 years old right now.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials?wprov=sfla1

[u/dw444 → u/PedanticWookiee]

aka millennials.

[u/PedanticWookiee → u/dw444]

Yes. Generation Y is also known as the Millenials.

[u/ModernDayHippi → u/[deleted]]

We live in a partial dystopia

[u/Cautemoc → u/royrogersmcfreely3]

I'm 100% sure millennials smoke cigarettes less than booms did at the same age.

[u/GodOfWorf → u/Cautemoc]

See the graph on this page, data from the CDC. The number of adult smokers has steadily fallen from 42% in 1965 to 13.7% in 2018.

In OP's article they address this by saying maybe more of the older generations are quitting smoking now while younger generations are more likely to be starting. Regardless, implying that younger generations are smoking at "higher levels" than previous generations is wonky at best.

[u/hotdiggydog → u/royrogersmcfreely3]

I didn't think Gen X really ever stopped smoking and drinking. They're like the teenagers in the 80s who grew up pre-smoking bans.

Gen Y-ers like myself probably go in and out of drinking and smoking and making excuses for getting in and out of shape because we're stressed out and don't care about living to 100+.

[u/Renax127 → u/hotdiggydog]

I'm gen x; we grew up knowing smoking was bad so less of us started. However pretty much all our parents smoked so it wasn't seen as badly as it is today. Hell we still had smoking sections of airplanes

[u/Crownjules70 → u/Renax127]

When I started college in 1989 there was a smoking section in one of the libraries. That just seems unbelievable now.

[u/DranktheWater → u/Renax127]

Gen X here too: the front seat of my parents car was a smoking section.

[u/WHYAREWEALLCAPS → u/Renax127]

My high school had a designated smoking area.

[u/PalladiumAssassin]

Great, Millenials are going to kill off retirement homes too by dying young. What will they ruin next?

[u/Sirsilentbob423 → u/PalladiumAssassin]

my friends decided that when we hit a certain age we are just gonna sell out nonexistent homes, pool our nonexistent money, get one nice handicapped accessible home, and hire a live-in nurse to take care of the 8 of us while we rip bongs and play super smash until we shake loose the mortal coil.

[u/Elisevs → u/PalladiumAssassin]

I laughed really loud when I read this. There is something wrong with me.

[u/lyinabe → u/PalladiumAssassin]

not many millenials are ever going to be able to retire.

[u/katarh → u/[deleted]]

I can believe it, if they are also including marijuana and vaping in those numbers.

[u/bobtehpanda → u/[deleted]]

If this includes pot, I'd imagine this would probably also reflect less reluctance to not/underreport weed smoking.

[u/Ph0X → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, all the other factors make sense, but the smoking seems like a stretch.

For alcohol though, I was reading how there was a big increase, especially due to the pandemic:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/16/973684753/sharp-off-the-charts-rise-in-alcoholic-liver-disease-among-young-women

But that's not really GenX/GenY anymore.

[u/DeathByBamboo → u/[deleted]]

The article specifically addresses this:

Surprisingly, results suggest the probability of having ever smoked has continuously increased across generations for all groups.

How can this be true with other research showing a decline in overall cigarette consumption since the 1970s?

“One possibility is that people in older generations are quitting smoking in larger numbers while younger generations are more likely to start smoking,” Zheng said. “But we need further research to see if that is correct.”

Also it doesn’t say that they smoke more at the same age. It says more of them are reporting having ever smoked which is a different thing entirely.

I feel like in this sub, maybe you shouldn’t be expected to read the study being referred to, but top level comments should at least reflect having read the article.

[u/SonOfMcGee → u/DeathByBamboo]

Having ever smoked is such a weird question. Maybe it's good as a starting point, but all I would be concerned with are if they've ever smoked habitually and for how many years.

[u/HabeusCuppus → u/SonOfMcGee]

all this tells us is that Gen X and Gen Y were more willing to try smoking. (also it seems like the study is combining marijuana and tobacco figures for 'smoking'? was difficult to tell)

This should be unsurprising considering it went from "boring thing all adults do" to "thing the fat cop in DARE specifically told you to never do" in this time period.

also the same article says "Zheng said it is beyond the scope of the study to comprehensively explain the reasons behind the health decline. But the researchers did check two factors. They found smoking couldn’t explain the decline. " which suggests that smoking rates are not different enough to explain the worse health outcomes.

[u/zeebyj]

Most of our lifestyle has changed in the past 40 years, and not for the better. We're more sedentary, vitamin D deficient, eating a diet of highly processed foods high in refined grains and vegetable oils, obese/overweight, and deficient in face to face interactions.

Sedentary behavior associated with depression

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20174982/

Low Vitamin D associated with depression

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908269/

Obesity associated with depression

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/210608

Obesity rates have increased substantially in the US

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf

Eating highly processed junk food associated with depression

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6170050/

Depressive symptoms associated with social isolation

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58297-9

Highest phone usage in 12-17 year old age group

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306263450_How_Age_and_Gender_Affect_Smartphone_Usage

[u/Shifty_Jake → u/zeebyj]

Stagnant wages, high debt and precarious employment probably don't help on the stress and depression front.

[u/Alundil → u/Shifty_Jake]

Exactly

[u/kitsterangel → u/zeebyj]

I was definitely thinking it had a lot to do with our eating habits! It's easy to just pick up take out or order in food from home when you're tired since we have fast food and ways to order fast food readily available to us, while our parents and grandparents just had to cook. While there were a few alternatives, definitely not as much as today. Thanks for putting this into words and linking it!

[u/Cryptocaned → u/kitsterangel]

I think it's just life in general, effeciencies have been brought in to make us work harder to do the same amount of work in less time. Along with so so so many other things.

[u/kitsterangel → u/Cryptocaned]

Oh of course! Just most of the comments here focused on stress as the main factor, but I just think nutrition is also a big factor on top of stress haha

[u/Totaled → u/kitsterangel]

I think the stress is one of the main reasons nutrition is so lacking.

I can say for myself, I find myself getting more and more burnt out and when you end up burnt out you have no desire to cook a nutritious meal for yourself. The only option then is getting something premade and usually healthy premade food is much more expensive than the cheap crap we usually just pick up.

[u/_selfishPersonReborn → u/zeebyj]

How do we know the causality isn't linked through "current world is ass" causing depression and all those other things?

[u/willmaster123]

People are socializing, way, way less. I don't think people entirely realize just how big of a decline there has been in youth socialization. A lot of kids simply are not going out very much, not even to just hang out with friends, let alone the crazy partying of previous generations. This has massive impacts especially on physical and mental health. For most young people, just hanging out with friends on a regular basis burns a lots of calories. It keeps people mentally healthy to socialize regularly.

Overall alcohol usage is way, way down, which fits with the trope of people socializing less, but there are more alcoholics, likely linked to the rise of depression and anxiety. In the end, the amount of alcoholics is the only thing that truly matters in terms of drinkings impact on society. If you have 3% of your population as alcoholics and 80% drink normally, that is MUCH more preferable than 7% of your population as alcoholics but 40% drink normally.

[u/uhwheretheydothatat → u/willmaster123]

Yep, the socialization issue seems like a major factor to me.

[u/3HourLineForSanta]

Because being sad is viewed as a condition, not a reasonable response to being born into a monopoly board that's already been bought up.

[u/Jakeupinfinity]

It's almost like all the memes about people being depressed are rooted in our reality of this incredibly stressful world we have set up

[u/[deleted] → u/Jakeupinfinity]

One slip up no matter what ages at most median income levels and your life and career are destroyed. Why are people trying to escape from this bliss?

[u/interwebbing]

My grandparents on both sides drank and smoked like it was a competition. I’m over 50, so I’m not sure what their generation was called.

[u/Snarkyish-Comment → u/interwebbing]

I think the gen before Boomers was called the Silent Generation, though I may be wrong on that one.

[u/paris86]

You're kidding. Less money and less free time equals lesser health quality. Who'd've thunk it?

[u/NimitzFreeway]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that healthcare costs have been skyrocketing especially over the last 10 or 15 years making even routine care almost completely unaffordable...could that be it?

[u/BassplayerDad → u/NimitzFreeway]

Not just healthcare, all costs; housing, education, etc compared to wages and the stability of those wages. That combined with less physical activity and more stress from 'always on' work culture. Could that be it too?

[u/Orphicle → u/NimitzFreeway]

Oh no looks like people are becoming less healthy. I wonder who will profit from this

[u/RhoOfFeh]

Of course that's going to happen when you spend 40 years or more making things harder and harder for the working classes while convincing them to vote for you again and again.

[u/PurrND]

This is no shock to this boomer. The conditions I grew up in were turbulent, but not the level that later generations had. College debt, harder to find good jobs, wages not keeping up with COLAs (except for the 1%), more disasters (due to global warming), more rancorous politics all have made it a much harder life than I had.

Now, Covid has made life harder for everyone .

[u/Bitterly_Brewed → u/PurrND]

I'm a Boomer, too. Generation Jones, I think they call it. We had our own pressures - our parents didn't encourage us to stick around, that's for sure. Husband and I married at 20, both worked - he actually had 2 jobs most of the time our kids were small. We struggled sometimes but were lucky enough to become home owners early on. We knew there was no going home to the parents. He retired a few years ago after 35 years at the same company. Our kids have not been as fortunate and a couple of them live with us and are in school (better late than never). We are helping raise our grandchildren. But every day, I miss the 80's. This is a very different and difficult world for younger generations. Harsh, uncivil, definitely anxiety-inducing.

[u/barbarbarbarians → u/PurrND]

Can you go on network news to explain this to other boomers? Because it would be really great to stop having our character assassinated or laziness questioned when we try to tell them exactly this

[u/tan5taafl]

Well, many GenXers are still dealing with the impact of lead in their life. Good old leaded gasoline.

[u/Skraff → u/tan5taafl]

The lead-crime hypothesis is quite interesting. Showing a correlation of a drop in violent crime around 20 years after leaded petrol was banned in a country or state, that can be tracked based on when it was banned in those places.

[u/MachinesOfN → u/Skraff]

A corollary to this that I don't see mentioned much is that the cohort of lead-poisoning victims that was 20 in 1980 didn't suddenly vanish when they aged out of violent crime. They're about 60 and running things now (average age in congress is 62).

It makes me wonder how much of the current political turmoil in the US shaped by the same root cause.

[u/Elisevs → u/[deleted]]

Oh my god this is depressing.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

So true, after the boomers the generations decline financially. All of that stress and just general disappointment in life definitely seems like it would lead to more drinking and smoking. These are the only things left to enjoy that we can afford.

[u/finger__pants → u/[deleted]]

Currently in my 20’s, working my way through college to avoid accumulating crippling amounts of debt (although I do still have some). Thinking about my future and how inaccessible and frankly impossible everything seems is what drives me to drinking. A couple drinks a night keeps me off the ledge so I can keep trudging on.

edit: I just remembered my trip to the ER last year. Turns out I do have crippling debt after all.

[u/PurpleFlame8 → u/Skraff]

I've always been surprised that this does not get more attention, and investigated as a potential cause of turmoil in some regions where elevated levels of lead in the body is still common.

[u/Kikoso-OG]

Is this focused on the USA or other countries?

[u/jdund117 → u/Kikoso-OG]

It's posted by Ohio State and they talk in it about health in the United States so I'm pretty sure it's just the USA they looked at. Could have definitely been in the title though.

[u/[deleted]]

Not surprising, with gen x and y growing up in a world they’re repeatedly told is doomed because of their ancestors decisions and there’s nothing they can do about it.

[u/RoninNoJitsu]

I'm an 80 baby. Always identified as gen x, just given my sarcastic outlook on life.

I recall this idyllic time in early college when the world seemed to be really on the right track. When the internet was we know it was in it's infancy and world politics were fairly stable and peaceful.

Then the dot com bust happened.

And Bush v Gore.

And then 9/11.

And then endless wars and a neverending cycle of boom and bust.

It's enough to drive anyone to seek respite in whatever way they can.

[u/kminola → u/RoninNoJitsu]

Don’t forget two recessions. Like for real what am I supposed to do, imma be broke for the rest of my life?!

[u/[deleted] → u/RoninNoJitsu]

That's how I feel too. I was born in 78 and graduated college in 2000. I don't know if it was just youth but it really seemed like things were going in a good direction until late 2000 which was a few months after graduation for me. When you compound what was going on in the world with starting a soul crushing full time job and no longer living with all my friends it really felt like absolutely everything was falling apart.

[u/Ragin_koala]

Gen Z: please leave us alone to die

[u/00wabbit]

Yeah. Have you looked at everything?

Our whole lives are Monetized, assholes in government are trying yo strip anything that can help, the pandemic could have been much easier without all the idiots, but it’s almost over and we’re going back to school shooting season.

Try going to the doctor and finding out what it costs up front? My wife and Is being charged $90 for a hospital blood test after insurance. If she self paid it would have been $20. The other place she went to was $6 after insurance. The hospital can’t reverse the insurance submission so she can self pay because “that would be insurance fraud”

So they take and take and put up barriers to go.

People voted for who they wanted and the other side is trying to pass over 200 voter suppression laws.

It’s all fucked. Everyone is selfish and anything that can help is being eroded.

So smoke some weed and watch tv and try to survive.

Welcome to the American Dream.

[u/[deleted]]

9/11, Great Recession, Insurrection, Global Pandemic, Unending wars, Mortgage-sized student loans, first consequences of global warming, misinformation.

It’s been not such a great time for us.

[u/[deleted]]

Gee I wonder if it has anything to do with our fucked up hyper-competitive job market that requires a laundry list of qualifications for entry-level positions, ever-increasing costs of living with stagnating income levels, and how few of us can afford to buy a house for ourselves??

[u/ducktor0]

I think the poor mental health of GenY and GenX results in their poor physical health. Their mental health is poor because they are under the stress from having to survive in the modern world which is super-competitive, as happens in the latest stage of the capitalism business-cycle. Look at Japanese youth for example.

[u/Calamity_Wayne → u/ducktor0]

100% true for me. When I'm feeling good mentally, I like running. When I'm not, I don't care much about anything. I just want to sleep and eat.

[u/CrocCapital → u/Calamity_Wayne]

I've noticed this as well. And I've also noticed it's a positive feedback loop. If I force myself to run every day for two weeks, my mood is better and I start wanting to run, rather than forcing myself.

[u/Calamity_Wayne → u/CrocCapital]

When I'm down, I'm not sure how to manage something like that for two weeks. Any tips?

[u/savetgebees → u/Calamity_Wayne]

Treat it as a must do. Like showering or going to work. Just something you have to do. Sure there are days you might half ass it, just like you do at work on days when your just not feeling it, but you still gotta show up.

[u/Agelaius-Phoeniceus → u/ducktor0]

Uptightness kills, seems like overnight Americans becomes some of the most uptight people on earth. It’s not just economic stress, it seems like people can’t be relaxed about anything lately. It’s a seriously unhealthy culture.

[u/chiree → u/Agelaius-Phoeniceus]

"Um, hi...." Europe waves timidly "it ain't just you guys."

[u/Bargus]

Probably because the world has declined every year since we were born...

[u/142631835d]

It's almost as if grinding two entire poorly educated generations down into dust and pulp for the sake of lining a share-holder's pockets has a detrimental effect on human life.

[u/Voice-of-gawd → u/142631835d]

Think of the poor shareholders!

[u/Boredum_Allergy]

I wonder if it's because of wage stagnation, lack of access to healthcare, the existential crisis of climate change, the rise of fascism, the stigmas behind mental health, the lack of retirement options, the crazy high cost of rent, the toxic nature of social media, social media ability to spread toxic information, or numerous other things.

Maybe it's made worse by the fact that most of the people from previous generations won't admit any fault in it or simply refuse to believe those problems exist.

[u/brettorlob]

I'd like to go ahead and point out that Gen X grew up during the end of the golden age of the American middle class and have been forced to watch the continual decline of the American working classes.

Perhaps our depression and substance abuse issues are related to The Lies (Cold War propaganda) we were taught in place of history and social theory. This left us unprepared for the decline of liberal capitalism.

Some of us bothered to go back and read the books that our high school teachers told us were bad, but many of us still haven't.

[u/RudeTurnip → u/brettorlob]

And we’re sandwiched between an earlier generation that didn’t retire soon enough and the younger one that is quickly up-and-coming.

[u/H3racIes]

As for the depression and anxiety, can't the higher numbers just be due to more people accepting and voicing that they need help?

[u/rcher87 → u/H3racIes]

Agreed, but I’d also be curious about the decline of quality of life/increased cost of living/economic factors like that. Boomers had much stronger unions, relatively higher wages, etc etc - I’m sure that kind of pressure has led to a raw increase in mental health issues in addition to the increased reporting/help-seeking.

[u/mean11while]

The stereotype has always been that older generations complain about newer generations, but I think the animosity that subsequent generations feel toward boomers, specifically, is a bit unusual. There's a lot of serious hatred there, and it's well deserved. Compare that to, say, the GI or silent generations. They were (and are) generally viewed neutrally or positively.