It is one of the inevitable topics of the millennial generation and that is, “Mental Illness”. It has become one of the terminal topics of all yet it’s high time to focus on our young minds!

So the question here is, why every fourth out of seven has a mental illness? Is it due to a new way of living life? Or is it the society? Well, we can’t blame society for every cause, right? Instead of living in a society, it is us who should be blamed.  Yes, the destruction is due to unawareness which we didn’t appreciate.

These young minds are an asset to our bright future, but what they are suffering from is the worst disease of all. Medically, there is a cure to all sorts of diseases but the question is, where is the essence of this disease? Why is this happening in excess amount to our young buds? Here are some of the elements which can be the reasons for the illness present in our young  minds :

1. Giving more priority to the unrealistic world of social media: Teenagers are the most popular groups of all ages who dedicate most of their time to social media and thus, for them, it’s ‘The second home’. They dwell so much in these media platforms that the unrealistic world makes them feel like it is reality.

Specially they tend to create fake personalities in front of their friends and colleagues and when they are avoided or not popular then they think of themselves as ‘worthless’.  

It is highly observed that teenagers are dwelling so much into the ocean of social media life that; they start to judge themselves based on; number of likes they got, followers, and people’s comments. This makes them feel depressed and their minds start to break down in this fake world.

Many times, these youngsters are targeted and bullied on social media through certain comments and unknown threats that they don’t even communicate with their parents to provide no harm to their parents.

• Fractured child-parent relationship: Contemporary parenting can be one of the elements which lead to their child to depression. Since parents are working 24/7, they don’t give much emphasis on their children and often there is a barrier of communication between the parent and child. Due to the unavailability of the parent’s presence, the child feels more ignorance and often lives in his/her thoughts which leads them to have a mental illness.  

We can also see that; these ignorant kids are often lured to follow the wrong path which leads them to devastation as a result.

• Academic pressures and Moral dilemmas: Kids these days are often pressurised by their parents to score high marks, study in a decent university, and earn pounds which will raise their status in society.

Often, due to this academic pressure children don’t feel themselves and rather they are distracted and even take difficult steps at a tender age. As we can see those suicides are due to academic pressures is in high rates which are also one of the common factors on the mental health in millennials.

• Pandemic – A Misery to the Millennial generation: This is one of the latest reasons why kids these days feel depressed about the new normal. The social interactions which made them feel positive are gone in the realms of social distancing and quarantine.

Attending online classes is one of the tiring jobs also several factors for them not being productive and lack in the concentration of academia. This leads to a very high amount of stress as we are humans and when we are clutched or burdened in result we act opposite to it, so the impact of online classes makes them vulnerable when they are facing so many pressures at the same time.

• Addiction leads to depression among youngsters: It is very unfortunate but a fact that the present generation youngsters face different types of addiction in different platforms and therefore they tag themselves as ‘FREAKS’; notably, these addictions vary from one kid to another, some are addictive to social media, some with games, some mislead their minds to pornography world and some are highly addictive towards drugs and sedatives, etc.

There are endless reasons why kids are being addictive but one of the central reasons is due to the exposure to technology at a very tender age. Often, they are misled by their friends and colleagues and due to fewer interactions with elders, they indulge themselves in these forms of bad impact on themselves.

• The cure to the sickness among youngsters:

Every disease has a cure at its end and to find this cure is that we should look into the core or the root of the disease. As rightly said, love and acceptance is a human need. The kids these days need parent’s support and guidance and a sense of belongingness so that they wouldn’t feel they are alone.

To bring them to their right place it is the elders who can try some old traditions to introduce among the young minds and let them know about the authenticity of their predecessors. As being together, loving each other and living in harmony can make youngsters feel accepted and so the cause of this disease can soon end.  

Youngsters on the other side can also sense their responsibility by being positive and having a good relationship with their family and creating kindness more instead of hatred.