"The Real World Threw Up All Over Us." That's the title of an article by Emily Bazelon of Slate, published in March of this year, about how twenty-somethings are dealing with the recession.
I was drawn in by this article because that's how I've felt throughout the current economic downturn - although I was never witty enough to come up with that phrase. In fact, I've felt this way pretty much since September 11, 2001, when the world, or at least the world as I knew it, turned upside-down. All of my expectations shifted. I didn't know it at the time, but all of the expectations for me, a recent college graduate at the time, were shifting as well. How did the definition of "success" change in a time of upheaval?
In 2001, friends of mine who had signing bonuses with top consulting firms suddenly had their dream job offers rescinded. Now, in 2009, the very idea of a job offer is a bit of a joke to a college graduate.
Bazelon writes: "They're anxious because they can't tell what the new rules of the game will be - or because they think they can tell, and they don't like what they see coming at them."
What is the effect of this shifting landscape on the mental health of emerging adults? Candice's story, told by Bazelon, helps answer that question:
"She can't pay for therapy for her depression anymore because she has no job and absolutely no money... In August, Candice graduated from James Madison University with a master's degree in English. She is the first person in her immediate family to go to college... Her parents, meanwhile, are having trouble understanding why she can't find works after months of searching. They're both ill and have to spend heavily for prescription medications. It is all an enormous, hopeless-feeling strain."
Though seemingly not the case with Candice, the "real world" that some of the twenty-somethings included in Bazelon's story are talking about is one of expected privilege. But, Bazelon herself acknowledges that it is not from a whiny place that these young adults are coming. It's from a place of genuine confusion and loss.
The current crisis contributes to already-apparent mental health access issues. Young people who haven't expected to face these kinds of challenges are experiencing a new kind of vulnerability. Will those who are experiencing depression for the first time know how to or be able to access needed resources?
Ultimately, what does living with a constant state of uncertainty mean for mental health?
