Psychology is like fortunetelling and other scams.

Anonymous wrote:Younger people tend to have more mental issues as they have no legitimate hardships in life of older prior generations (talking Silent Gen, Greatest Gen, earlier).

When life is easy, people become neurotic and invent their own "hardships" so they can feel special and point fingers.

Hard times creates tough people
Tough people create easy times
Easy times creates wimpy people.
Wimpy people create hard times.

Rinse Repeat.
A trend as old as history.

My mother is end of Greatest generation, but more boomer. She had a pretty charmed life especially since she was the golden child and as a result she can cope with NOTHING. Minor inconveniences set her off and this was long before she started aging rapidly. My dad was firmly in the Silent Generation faced real adversity with immigrant parents who came here with nothing, the Great Depression, antisemitism, a parent died young and much more. He would cope by going into denial (not healthy) and escapism (normal for his generation and helpful), but the difference is he didn't develop a raging sense of entitlement because he knew the world will throw garbage at you and you have to deal. I think Generation X (my generation) and Generation Z (my kids) have faced A LOT of adversity and all the therapy talk and normalizing of getting help has been good. We identify mental health needs before they turn into major problems and healthy strategies have been drilled into us.

Younger people tend to have more mental issues as they have no legitimate hardships in life of older prior generations (talking Silent Gen, Greatest Gen, earlier).

When life is easy, people become neurotic and invent their own "hardships" so they can feel special and point fingers.

Hard times creates tough people
Tough people create easy times
Easy times creates wimpy people.
Wimpy people create hard times.

Rinse Repeat.
A trend as old as history.

I think we are more self-aware with each generation, and are learning to be better humans. But that also means we look back on earlier generations and think, “Whoa, that was actually kinda messed up.”

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, it looks like the millennials have much more problems coping, hands down. The buzz words of this group are anxiety, trauma, and trigger. All types of therapy-speak. Also- mainlining anti anxiety meds, straight up meltdowns at work, very late maturing. Boomers and Gen X seem to be fine, frankly, and a much better work ethic.

I find Boomers to be the voice of reason usually. They became adults in their 20s, not 40s. Next is Gen X, they became adults in their late 20s early 30s.

+1. And now that millennials are crossing into the middle age, this overtherapised generation looks even worse. Can’t wait for the stories their kids tell.

Anonymous wrote:Here and elsewhere, I see numerous complaints about manipulative elders and elders with narcissistic qualities.

Is there a percentage of any population that has these traits?

I’d like to think these types of issues are decreasing as we talk more openly about mental health and what constitutes a healthy relationship.

NP

It’s a mix of things. There have always been issues but people didn’t talk about them. Current Millennials and younger have greatly reduced life coping skills so label garden variety disagreement as “narcissism” or “manipulation.” Childhood lead poisoning and other environmental factors have impacted the elderly, particularly with respect to cognitive function. Cable news (both Fox and MSNBC) have made the elderly fearful and paranoid, and unable to see other perspectives. For Gen X and Millennials, social media creates a bubble of rigidly enforced agreement and thoughtless validation where even the most objectively crazy positions are taken seriously and never criticized. People don’t need each other as much as they used to due to the destruction of small businesses in favor of large corporations, so there’s a lot less “go along to get along.” Large chunks of our corporate infrastructure profit off of social isolation so encourage divisive narratives within families, often by turning average disagreement and normal quirks into pathologies. (Where would the pharma, therapy, medical, gun, and entertainment industries be if we weren’t so socially isolated these days?)

It’s a hard problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, it looks like the millennials have much more problems coping, hands down. The buzz words of this group are anxiety, trauma, and trigger. All types of therapy-speak. Also- mainlining anti anxiety meds, straight up meltdowns at work, very late maturing. Boomers and Gen X seem to be fine, frankly, and a much better work ethic.

I find Boomers to be the voice of reason usually. They became adults in their 20s, not 40s. Next is Gen X, they became adults in their late 20s early 30s.

This exactly. Take a look at college forums on Reddit. Today’s students can barely find a classroom on their own, and need constant reassurance over their traumas and mental health concerns. They love being basket cases.

Today's students aren't millennials.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, it looks like the millennials have much more problems coping, hands down. The buzz words of this group are anxiety, trauma, and trigger. All types of therapy-speak. Also- mainlining anti anxiety meds, straight up meltdowns at work, very late maturing. Boomers and Gen X seem to be fine, frankly, and a much better work ethic.

I find Boomers to be the voice of reason usually. They became adults in their 20s, not 40s. Next is Gen X, they became adults in their late 20s early 30s.

This exactly. Take a look at college forums on Reddit. Today’s students can barely find a classroom on their own, and need constant reassurance over their traumas and mental health concerns. They love being basket cases.

They are the generation that thinks therapists and meds are for the crazies. My mom's friends who actually got therapy and even took meds if needed have great relationships with their adult children. (I know about their therapy and meds and even their past abortions and far more because my mom has no boundaries). The ones who got help don't expect their children to solve or make up for their problems rescue them. My mother and her friends who don't get help when needed all have varying degrees of estrangement from at least 1 adult child and a lot of dramatics with other family and/or friends and/or spouses.

I don't know about narcissists in my family, but both my mother and grandmother have/had serious mental health issues. My mom has really bad anxiety and depression, but didn't get a diagnosis until her 70s. My grandmother had awful anger issues (she regularly threw things at my grandfather), I don't know what a doctor would say she "had," but she wasn't mentally healthy. My guess is that there were similar amounts of mental illness, we just talked about them differently.

Anonymous wrote:No. It's always been this way but people went along with things and used denial. There was significant shame around mental illness and addiction so people hid it or lied about it. There was also no language to talk about some behaviors we know more about today (i.e., PTSD) and people "kept it in the family."

People were also ashamed to get divorced so they stayed in marriages they should not have or made up stories. In my family there were great aunts who remarried after they left their husbands or their husbands left them and they moved to different states. They claimed to be widows. My grandmother never uttered a peep about that. I only know from doing genealogy. These husbands were still alive and there were no divorces. I think in many ways society was more sick in the past.

This would comprise the generation before Boomers. Not Boomers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here and elsewhere, I see numerous complaints about manipulative elders and elders with narcissistic qualities.

Is there a percentage of any population that has these traits?

I’d like to think these types of issues are decreasing as we talk more openly about mental health and what constitutes a healthy relationship.

Anecdotally, the narcissists I know in real life are all younger.

This. Millennials.

Anonymous wrote:Here and elsewhere, I see numerous complaints about manipulative elders and elders with narcissistic qualities.

Is there a percentage of any population that has these traits?

I’d like to think these types of issues are decreasing as we talk more openly about mental health and what constitutes a healthy relationship.

Nah, their kids just literally never grew up and decided to coin the term "narcissist" to fit their own agenda.

Seriously, it looks like the millennials have much more problems coping, hands down. The buzz words of this group are anxiety, trauma, and trigger. All types of therapy-speak. Also- mainlining anti anxiety meds, straight up meltdowns at work, very late maturing. Boomers and Gen X seem to be fine, frankly, and a much better work ethic.

I find Boomers to be the voice of reason usually. They became adults in their 20s, not 40s. Next is Gen X, they became adults in their late 20s early 30s.

Childhood trauma and if they didn't get help which most didn't, it gets worse as they age.