April 10, 2025 • 38 mins
The generation that you grow up in tends to define how you think about mental health issues. In this episode, Justin and Eddie talk about why there are differences between Boomers, Zoomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, and more. The better we can understand others, the better we can empathize.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So today we are talking about my generation. So Eddie's
what's one thing you like about your generation? Our generation?
This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm doctor Justin Romano,
a child adolescent psychiatry fellow.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And I'm Medikoreo, a licensed clinical therapist. Our podcast is
here because we wanted to start a much newer conversation
about mental health.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Our goal is to teach you as much as we
can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
you enjoy today's episode.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
MMHC is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I Heartmah. What do I like about our generation? God,
it's gonna make me feel or sound old and probably
feel old too. I think the idea that we like
grew up without technology like we grew up with technology
is like interesting to think back too. I feel like
(01:08):
we as a generation kind of started to be more
open about like mental health and insecurities and stuff. So
I think that's positive. But I'll go with those two,
the growing up with like alongside technology and then the
maybe just more openness.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, I would. I would say the first thing that
came to mind for some reason was like burned CDs.
You love that about our generation, Yeah, being able to
just like put all your favorite songs on a CD
and like give it to your friend. And it was
Remember I had just like random hippie kids coming up
to me at school because they knew I was into music,
and they'd be like, hey, man, you got to check
(01:44):
out the Disco Biscuits. Here's a CD.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm like, great Disco Biscuits.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Shout out to old Johnny Burlew and the Disco Biscuits.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
He's the one who introduced Man. That's would have taken
me back. You think back to random ass CDs man
with just like random music on it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, and like you still find him every once in
a while and you're like, what the hell is on
this thing?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
When I sold my truck, I took the CD that
had been in the CD player. It had to have
been in there for at least six or seven years,
and I definitely took it. So it's somewhere. I think
it's in my car, right now, but I don't have
a CD player, so it might just be sitting in there,
But I man, it probably had Like I'm sure there
(02:33):
was like a Kesha song. I definitely had Friday by
Rebecca Black has like a funny like that was on there.
Definitely some like ass shaking music just that everything, every
piece of genre. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Oh, and millennials had the best ass shaking music, just
like I listened to some of the stuff that we
grew up with and I'm like, this is grotesque, Like
this is truly.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Off his braille section.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, like parents let us, they didn't let us, but
we listened to this.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, remember I've mentioned as a couple of times,
like the first time I downloaded the explicit version of
a song and was like holy shit, like this is
not this is not appropriate.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, speaking of generations, I mean, that's kind of what
we're talking about today. We're looking at differences across generations,
similarities between generations, just overall generations and their view on
mental health. This really comes from one of the classes
that I taught very early on in the semester. I
felt like it'd be a good idea just to kind
(03:41):
of revisit it. A lot of the topics we've talked
about bits and pieces here and there, but I thought
it'd be cool if we just kind of focused on it,
you know, over our time of working primarily with teens
and their families, Just and I definitely specialize in that,
we found that, like unsurprisingly, that there's differences between the
generations when it comes to their views on mental health,
especially if you work with a teen and their family
(04:03):
like you can, you can definitely see it like in
session sometimes, so we wanted to talk about it. One
thing I'll mention, and probably the inspiration behind this conversation
alongside with my class is the book The Anxious Generation,
right that I read a little while back by doctor
Jonathan Heighte. It came out where he basically talks about
(04:24):
like why he thinks gen Z is the quote anxious generation.
And if you haven't read the book yet, spoiler alert
or maybe pause right now and then come back to
the episode after you finish it, but if you want
a quick synopsis of it, basically he talks about, you know,
his main points are that gen Z had a lack
of a play based childhood, so they weren't taking risks.
(04:47):
They weren't, you know, leaving the house for hours at
a time and coming back when the street lights came on.
They weren't you know, getting into arguments and discourse with
their friends and then figuring it out as kids did
or do. Having the lack of a play based childhood,
he thinks is part of it. He also feels that
they're just overparenting by parents again impacting their ability to
(05:08):
take risks, impacting their ability to just kind of learn
through natural social behaviors and interactions. And then the last
one that he talks about is pretty obvious, and mister
or doctor Justin Romano over here gave a pretty important
ted talk about it, but just the overuse of phones,
the Internet, social media, all of the above. So that's
(05:30):
kind of his two cents on it, but really kind
of help shape the idea for this episode. Alongside with
the class that I taught very early on in the
semester this spring term.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So we want to just define what specific years the
different generations categorize into. So the baby boomers is kind
of the oldest one we'll be talking about, and these
are technically people from who were born in the years
nineteen forty six through nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
If you are, like Justin and I millennials, you most likely,
can we make that generalization, most likely your parents are
or somewhere in the gen X age, so maybe a
little older right on like the cusp of it. But
the next one is gen X, So that's about nineteen
sixty five to nineteen eighty. We're gonna say about for
all of this, just because it depends who you ask.
(06:19):
Leaders are so fluid and they really they run together.
So that's about where gen X is.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And actually, technically both of my parents are boomers fifty
five and fifty nine. They were a little bit older
than they had kids, I know.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Right, So see what happens when I assume I make
an ass out of myself now even you and me.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Which I like that my parents are boomers because I
love that timeframe like that. I really fell in love
with the music that they were into growing up. So
I've got a soft spot in my heart for boomers.
Even though it seems like there's a strong conflict between
millennials and boomers. Have you played the board game Millennials
Versus Boomers?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What is that they actually have like a full trivia
game where it's like you have to answer trivia questions
about each other's generations. Oh yeah, and then about your
own too, so I can actually get some points. But
I thought that was kind of an interesting game and
some good team building.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's a cool idea.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, next up after Gen xers, Yeah, we got millennials,
which are typically nineteen eighty one to nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We have gen Z, our current kind of well this
is this is where it's interesting. It's they're like our current,
like teens, but also it bleeds into gen Alpha. But
gen Z is about nineteen ninety seven to twenty ten,
which actually, if I think about it, our gen Z
our youngest ones are seventeen right now, so that miss
(07:48):
my mouth, right, No they're not. They're fifteen fifteen, so
yeah they're right yah, yeah, right right.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
The beginning of Jena yeah, Jen Alfa, yeah yeah, Jen
Alfha twenty eleven to twenty twenty five, and then the
new one, jen Beta is this year and onward as
of January. Yeah, it just changed.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, some other generations to think about or just to
be aware of. Is the greatest generation. I don't even
remember what time frame they said that was, but I
guess if they're so great. Sure, there's the Silent generation,
and then there's boomers too. Have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I had never heard of boomers Part two.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
No, Yeah, they're called like the Jones generation. So if
you have ever heard the phrase keeping up with the
Jones is, yeah, that's kind of where it came from,
like some in some way, shape or form, it came
from that. Oh interesting, they're related to each other. Yeah,
boomers too.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
The Jones generation is the cohort between Baby Boomers and
Gen X, with some defining characteristics, including the most who
did not grow up with World War Two veteran parents,
and as they reached adulthood there was no compulsory military
service and no defining political cause. So no wonder noe's
heard of?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Damn. The other one that we wanted to mention is
the Silent generation. They're characterized by and this is I mean,
there's definitely still people alive, but like the much older
characterized by things like the Great Depression in World War Two,
and they have a tending to They tend to draw
towards conformity and traditionalism. But one thing across the generations,
(09:28):
it's a common theme is just how much the impact
of social, political, and technological events have on each age range.
So even if all the events are are different, each
of those has some type of impact on each of
the generations.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
When we talked about our generation, your technology got brought up,
music got brought up. You know, there's a lot with
our generation culturally and politically that are very important to
us too. So the things that we go through define
us absolutely. The things that defines baby boomers. They are
traditionally hard working, traditional conservative in their social values. And
(10:06):
what I've noticed about baby boomers is that.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
They tend to be very private.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
They don't want to put a lot of there, or
at least before Facebook really blew up, they were a
little it's.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I feel like it's changed.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I do feel like boomers, like I remember my parents
growing up, it was it was let's not tell anyone anything,
let's not release anything, like, don't put your name out
there unless you absolutely have to. And then Facebook came along,
and then all of a sudden, it just seems like
Boomer's are sharing more than anyone.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Right, Yeah, that's hello, fuddy. Yeah, that's a good point
for Gen xers. We've got there. They tend to be independent.
Have you ever heard the term latchkey kids? Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, like the kids who just they had a latch key.
They could come home after school. There was no one
really to watch them. They just hung out and watched
the yan took care of themselves.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yep. Yeah, that was a new That was a new
phrase for me within the last year. And then when
I shared it with my class earlier, I had students
who are like, I've never heard that before, so that
was kind of cool to teach them something different. But
because of things like that, because of being independent, we
also see characteristics like being resourceful and also having like
some skepticism towards authority. I think if I go back
(11:22):
and look at the year range, you got sixty five
to eighty, there's some like free spiritedness in that year
range or some I don't want to call people like hippies,
but there's some rage against the authority for sure. That
was kind of going on in those years, even if
I wasn't there. That's what I've heard. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Millennials are typically seen as very socially conscious, very diverse,
and pretty tech savvy because they grew up alongside technology
and I saw A really interesting meme that kind of
struck home with me is that someone was a computer
trainer at their job and said that the younger kids
(12:06):
these days, the gen z says, teaching them like desktop
computer skills is like teaching the boomers desktop computer skills
because they didn't grow up with desktop computers. They mostly
had tablets and touch screens. So he says, yeah, this
newer generation doesn't know how to use a.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Computer has its own Yeah, every one of our students.
And I have seen this where a lot of schools
will give their let's just say, like middle high school,
like a laptop or a chromebook. I didn't have a
laptop to I was in college, so like they've grown
up with that now too, So I think that causes
its own differences too, Like a laptop is definitely different,
(12:43):
it's just kind of the use of it. And yeah,
that's interesting. I didn't know that. I never heard that.
Characteristics of our gen z ers they have like a
global perspective. They seem to be pretty in the know
about things, or at least have an idea that things
are going on in the world. Tech immersed and then
this idea of like being diverse and inclusive, I will say,
(13:03):
I mean working with teens. I don't know if you
would agree justin but like they seem to be pretty
inclusive and more open minded. Maybe not the ones that
we've lost to like some of this red pill super
right wing content, but they seem to be pretty diverse
and inclusive from everything I've seen.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
An important consideration to all of this is just looking
at each generation and a piece of privilege that they hold,
and especially for Jen Alpha, their privileges freedom from responsibilities
in a lot of sense, and care and guidance from adults.
Generation Alpha is probably the most looked after generation. Like
(13:46):
my son is too. He is Generation Alpha, and I
don't think there is really ever a time and you know,
he's still a toddler that people aren't watching him like
he is constantly unless he's sleeping, their eyes on him
at all times. And I think that's how most kids
in that generation have been raised.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, he's not currently a latch key kid.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
He is not a latch and you know, now that
I think of it, even while he's sleeping, we have
a monitor so that we can keep eyes on him
at all times. Like, yeah, that's just these kids are
growing up with constantly being supervised and watched.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, for gen Z, there's this increase in autonomy, things
like starting to drive to work at your first job.
They kind of have a more active role in family decisions,
whether or not it's they agree with the decision or
they want to participate in it and giving out like
the stereotype of an angsty team, but they tend to
be more involved with those kinds of things. They have
(14:45):
more opportunities for exploration. You think of starting to shift
towards getting to college age, starting to shift to you know,
being in high school, getting to choose things that you
want to do extracurriculars. There's an increase in legal protections.
It does depend on your state, but things like confidence
reality you can make your own medical decisions varies kind
of the ones you hit that teenage years, depending on
(15:05):
the state. You get some You definitely get some responsibility.
They have knowledge of technology, and then they start to
shift to kind of this flexibility to relocate as they
get older with the possibility of something like college or
traveling and doing things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Millennials, they tend to have more freedom to make independent
life choices. We're getting to the age now where millennials
are grown up, even though I think a lot of
millennials still see themselves as young. People still see themselves
as kind of kids.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I know I.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Struggle with that too, where I'm like, I'm still a kid.
I'm like, but I have a child.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
They also have a higher energy available for career and
personal goals. So this is the time of our life
where a lot of people are really hustling, trying to
make a name for themselves, trying to make enough money,
trying to afford a house. And Plus, millennials have somewhat
of an advantage because they do have this pretty solid
knowledge of technology.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
For Gen X, things like greater career and financial stability
seems to be there. Generally, they have authority and influences
in spaces that they are part of because of their
age and experience, and I think of something specifically like work.
And then they have access to the connections built over time. Naturally,
as you get older, you meet more people, you've built connections.
(16:21):
That's just it seems like a pretty natural thing that
happens as you get older.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
And then my favorite baby boomers, they're getting more freedom
from full time work. Although it seems like a lot
more boomers are having to work later into life because
of financial issues, and unfortunately for them, the economy seems
to be tanking, and I know a lot of older
people are really worried about that. Baby boomers tend to
have more access to specialized programs and potential access to
(16:49):
build on wealth. Like wealth builds wealth. They have the
money to invest and increase their money, which a lot
of younger generations are worried that they're going to be
not be in the same place bloomers are.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Wait, why is the economy thinking it?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
No particular.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Damn man. But all right, okay, so generations and mental health. Okay,
we've talked about a lot of stuff. We've given you
some some base knowledge, some generalizations. Oh I didn't say
(17:29):
that earlier. I wanted to say it, but I don't
take the opportunity to say now. These are generalizations. These
are not the end all be all. This does not
categorize characterize every single generation. There is differences, one hundred
percent differences based off of you know, how people grew up,
based off of experiences they've had. Just because some of
(17:51):
the things we're about to say may seem more on
the negative side does not mean that it's it fits
everybody and does not mean that people don't have the
opportunity to change or to learn. So just want to
throw that out there. These are generalizations, but you know,
there's some validity in it for sure, Like in doing
research and reading up on stuff for this episode of
(18:11):
my class, there's definitely some validity. So anyway, so looking
at the generations and mental health, so because of the
characteristics that we mentioned earlier and other things, each generation
appears to have a different view on mental health, and
it makes sense. The experiences you had growing up definitely
shape your worldview. Part of your worldview, even if it's
a small part, is how you view mental health. So again,
(18:35):
these are generalizations, but just things to keep in mind. Overall,
older generations like baby Boomers and Gen X, they do
tend to have a view on mental health that having
these struggles is a sign of weakness, and sometimes they
struggle to understand how someone can even have mental health struggles.
I think of my students, my teens have had over
(18:56):
the years of like, oh, well, they have everything they need,
what are like how are they having a hard time?
That makes no sense to me, you know, And so
I think because of that, it creates some maybe some animosity,
some headbutting across the different generations when it comes to
parents and their kids. But that's kind of what we
see when it comes to baby boomers and Gen X, Right.
(19:19):
They they're this generation that's grown up. They're hard working,
they've done things for themselves, they take care of themselves,
they're very resourceful. So why would anyone have a hard time.
You can just get yourself out of it, right, You
work harder and you'll be okay. So that's that's kind
of what we've seen in our work.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I noticed that some of my patients who are being
raised by boomers, and usually it's like a grandparent raising,
they'll make statements kind of like what you had mentioned
where it's like they got a roof over their head,
they got food on the table, Like what do they
have to be depressed about? And it's like a lot.
Lot's a lot that can be depressed about. And you know,
(19:56):
in the grand scheme of things, like yeah, it's wonderful
that you have a roof over your head and food
on your table, but that doesn't mean that genetically you're
not predispositioned to be depressed or have things like schizophrenia
or bipolar disorder. Like, it's not always so cut and dry,
like just because you have these amenities doesn't mean that
you can avoid mental health complications altogether. M But I mean,
(20:19):
they did grow up in a time where it was
that pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality, and I
do think that it is changing. This is kind of
the mindset that boomers had when they were younger. But
I think a lot of boomers are starting to listen
to younger generations be flexible and plastic in their thinking
(20:39):
so that they can actually adjust it. So I don't
think they're all like that still, but that seems like
it was the definite prevailing thought.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Given what we've talked about already and even just your
experience and your work. Do you feel like you can
understand where that view comes from? For Gen X baby boomers,
this like just pull yourself by, pull yourself up by bootstraps,
or work hard and you can get through it. Does
that make sense to you in a way?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yes, Yeah, Because I think the brain goes to whatever
answer is going to be the easiest and the answer
that's going to not make you think too much.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
So if you just.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Say, oh, they just need to work harder. Oh, there's
not really a big issue, it's just kind of their fault.
Then you do not actually have to fix the problem,
You don't actually have to think about what the solutions are,
what's causing it. You can just kind of write it
off and keep going. So I think it was just
easier for that generation. And I think they were really
(21:37):
very focused on working, like they were the generation especially,
I've seen it in my parents too. They were under
the belief that you worked, you worked to the bone,
like you worked hard and sacrificed yourself for your work.
And that's changing in the younger generations, which I think
is a good and healthy thing. But it seems like
(21:57):
for the boomer generation, anything that god in the way
of work was bad. It needed to be ignored and
you needed to just focus on work and keep pushing.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It's like the idea of like, worked in the same
company for forty seven years, never took a sick day
and got oh yeah days left over.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, And that's usually a point of pride for boomers, right, Yeah,
I never took a sick day, never missed a day,
where you know, it was very loyal and.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I mean time off is one I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, it's healthy.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Balance is good, Yes, yeah, balance is good.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I'm glad these things have changed, but that's what are
our older generations, our boomers did have growing up.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Another point to maybe highlight or emphasize, like that perspective,
worked hard, did all these things, never took a day off,
and look at what we ended up with. It's like, yeah,
that's a positive thing. You got a house to carry,
your kids, your family, all these things like those are
things to be very prideful about and to be very
proud of. And it's an opportunity to reflect and know
(23:03):
that if that's the end goal, there's not just one
way to get there. You don't have to beat yourself
up over a job for this many years, and you
don't have to stick things out. Sometimes sometimes you can
get up and leave try something different. So anyway, I
guess yes, the answer I think both of us can
come through is it makes sense this perspective. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
One thing my dad's kind of talked about in the past,
which I think was a really excellent point, was that
the boomers were the hippie generation in the sixties, and
at the time everyone thought that they were going to
change everything, they were going to stop being so corporately minded,
they were going to stop being so money focused, and
then they ended up becoming the exact same thing that
they were rebelling against, which is fascinating to me that
(23:47):
it was kind of hypocrisy, like they were supposed to
change everything and then ended up becoming what they hated.
I think that's interesting that the allure of the money
just was too much.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
At some point, the the bell bottom jeans and the
peace signed necklace had to get traded in for the
suit and time.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's the the you know, I've
just heard that so many times age old phrase.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yeah, the doobie had to run out of flame. At
some point. We're gonna have more of these. We'll keep
thinking of.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
The Volks ran out of gas.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
God damn it, they made it electric. Okay, So uh
all right, let's let's we gotta talk about the younger
people too a little bit. We look at the younger generations, right,
we got millennials, we got gm zuh. There seem to
be some factors that contribute to their overall generational openness
to mental health, right, mental health literacy. I think is
(24:49):
a huge one. People just have a better understanding of
mental health. They are exposed to it more, they've learned,
they've been more curious about it. I think when you
have a generation that's older, that's all about working hard,
not letting things get in the way. We're not taking
the time to maybe stop and think of like why
am I struggling with this? Or why am I sad?
Or why am I feeling this way? So I think
(25:11):
these younger generations are more open to finding out those answers.
There's definitely less in stigma, there's more normalization about it,
and then the increase access to information about mental health.
I will say if I had a nickel for every
time I had a teen that was like fascinated by
the DSM five that I had on my desk, I'd
(25:31):
have about a dollar. And that's in like the almost
eight years of working. That's pretty good. So I don't know,
that's just it's anecdotal, but there's there's definitely some there's
interest in it, and maybe in more of a way
than before than ever before.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I think a big piece of that too, is a
piece of that openness is the fact that social media
has given people a way to hear perspectives that they
otherwise wouldn't have heard, especially as someone who grew up
in Wyoming where it's mostly just white people. Being able
(26:08):
to see other people's perspective from around the world on
social media that was such a new thing. It's crazy
that it's gone from learning other people's point of views
to just being indoctrinated and do extremism. But you know,
at the beginning, it was a really wonderful thing and
it really did help people understand other people's perspectives.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
There was, for sure, and even probably still now, but
there's definitely like an emphasis on just being real and
like learning like realness like really seem to do well
on social media for long, and it probably still does,
but there's definitely it's definitely shifted over the last four
or five years if you think of something like TikTok
and Instagram. But one thing that I will say that
(26:51):
I think kind of maybe plagues the younger generations when
it comes to mental health struggles is this idea of
if everybody has mental health, if everybody is depressed, if
everyone is anxious, if everyone has autism, does anyone really
have mental health concerns depression, anxiety, autism, And I think
it's a fair question. I think I think there's definitely
(27:12):
we had a really good discussion on this in my class.
I think someone it was part of like this lecture,
but also someone had brought in like an article about
TikTok specifically and self diagnosis. There is probably this idea
of like we may be diagnosing things more frequently, or
we probably are diagnosed it. We are diagnosing things more frequently.
(27:33):
What is the reason for that? Are we overdiagnosing our
people self diagnosing too much? Are we just better at
finding it? I don't know, but I think I feel
like it's a fair question, like if everyone has it,
does anyone really have it?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, we're starting to understand more and more about mental
health issues. Is that a lot of times it's a spectrum,
Like you might only be like a little tiny bit depressed,
but that's still you go through times of feeling depressed
and that's normal. But when it gets to being in
the way of your life, that's when we start to
pathologize it and say like, Okay, maybe you need some
help for that for depression.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, And I feel like I don't know if you've
heard anything of this, and you know, we haven't had
a new DSM and I'm not even going to count
the text redvice, but we haven't had a new DSM
since twenty thirteen. But I feel like for a while
people have been saying like, oh, the next one is
going to be more of like things will be on
a spectrum. I don't know if you've heard that, but
I think like that might be the direction we're going
(28:26):
in of like, yes, maybe more people were diagnosed, but
it's because we have this more spectrum that maybe better
fits the acuity and intensity of like symptoms and what
people are dealing with.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I think you made a really good point earlier that
I saw that quite a bit in clinical practice, especially
over COVID of especially with all the social media influencers
and everything, a lot of kids were coming in saying
like I have autism, I have dissociative personality disorder, I
have X, Y and Z. You diagnose me and treat
(29:00):
and it's like, whoa where did you hear about this?
And nine times out of ten it was, oh, there
was an influencer there. I heard it on TikTok, which
I mean, I'm sure there are some people that really
legitimately had those things, and TikTok taught them about it
and got them to understand it a little bit better.
But it's kind of a double edged sword there, because
it seemed like I remember watching a lot of ADHD
(29:22):
videos where they were talking about stuff like oh, if
you do this, you have ADHD. Yeah, it's like, that's
not a diagnostic criteria, that's not a symptom. That's just
this one random person. So there's just a lot of
bad information out there on social media.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
If you sleep with your hand under your chin, you
have autism? What the fuck? What?
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, just weird stuff like that, Right, it could apply
to anyone, but it doesn't really apply to every It
was just yeah, silly.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And that you know, that might have been a sign
when that kind of content was starting to take off
of like oh well, this is what's like really good
in the views of these like fake diagnostic criteria where
people are like searching out Like when you couple it
with generations that are more curious about mental health and
are seeking information, and then instead of turning to books
and texts and stuff which are born to read, you
(30:16):
turn to short form videos because it's easier to get
information that way sometimes and then you're so you're looking
for the information and then you find it. Look ten
signs you have autism? Hell yeah, I sleep with my
hand under my chin autism. Yeah, it's tricky. So that's
kind of the main pieces we want to share today.
But some things some to discuss and then kind of
(30:38):
go over justin in your practice. Like what I know,
we both of us primarily focused with teens, but because
of that we also get exposed to their parents and
even their grandparents are caregivers and those are usually of
a different generation. But what generational differences have you noticed
regarding mental health in your own practice?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
The most odd one is just the technology that kids
these days don't socialize in person very much anymore. Most
of their social life is on the phone, on the xbox,
on the computer, So most of their free time is
spent isolating to their room. And every single day I've
(31:19):
got families coming in saying like, I can't get my
kid out of the room. They're in there for eight
hours a day on their devices and tuning out the world.
Families don't really seem to spend that much time together.
Like family used to go on walks together, They used
to go out together and do fun things. I have
so many families that just tell me, like, I've got
nothing in common with my parents. They don't foster any
(31:43):
of these interests with them, so they're like, like, I
I'll ask families all the time, what do you do
for fun together? And they have absolutely nothing because they
have such widely different lives. And the funny thing is
is now the parents are also addicted to their screens
in separate rooms, on their phones, doing completely opposite things,
(32:04):
and it just feels like like this younger generation is
so disconnected. And I tell my young people all the
time that the studies are showing that this seems to
be the most lonely generation in history, and it's because
they're not having those face to face interactions with their peers.
They're choosing to have those interactions on their phones, and
(32:26):
those tend to make you more lonely in the long run.
Is having those online relationships.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
If I were to mention something different, probably just the
the headbutting of like between generations when it comes to
parents and their kids, caregivers and their kids, you know,
foster parents and their kids, whatever it is, whatever adult
they have in their life just the differences and you hear, oh,
you know kids these days and things like that I
think are something that I see a lot, And it's
(32:54):
not it's not to shit on any generation. It's just
trends that we notice.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
So how do is this information about differences in generations?
How does it affect our work?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Like?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Does is it useful information for us? What do you think?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I mean? Shit? I hope so. Because we just talked
about it for like thirty.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Minutes, we wouldn't be doing the episode otherwise.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah. I think I've been talking about class a lot
about this again, teaching cultural foundations, Like base information is
really good to have. General information is really good to have.
Is it going to guide every single interaction we have
with a client? Maybe it'll have some kind of impact.
Is it going to answer every single question we have
(33:36):
about a client? Fuck? No, right, Because people are so
different from each other, we have to look at the individual.
But I think having the general knowledge is really important
because we can at least have this idea of like, Okay,
these kids probably have an understanding of technology and social media. You,
so if they do, I can probably talk about social
media pretty openly and pretty directly because they know exactly
(33:57):
what I'm talking about. So I think it helps the
word work. I think it helps us to just kind
of be knowledgeable about who we're working with and what
kind of experiences they may have or have had, or
are going to have. It's just I think it's good
to have the info.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
You know, what I've very much learned in my career
is that people's parents aren't always the one raising the child.
There's a lot of non traditional families out there. There's
a lot of grandparents raising their grandkids. There's a lot
of foster care stuff. There's a lot of interesting intergenerational play,
(34:31):
and you never know what generation is going to get
matched up with another generation and how they're going to mesh.
So it's interesting to see that in my job, and
the similarities in certain conflicts, like when there's you know,
boomer grandparents raising their kids kind of the same trends
that keep popping up in those families is interesting to me.
But yeah, it's useful to know. You know, the more
(34:52):
information and the more we understand other people and our patients,
the better.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Have you ever seen any times or like a parent
caregiver whoever's in charge is kind of flip their stance
on something during the time you work with, maybe stop
saying that their kid is soft or that they just
got to kind of figure it out or deal with it.
Have you ever seen anything like that?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, I think absolutely. People. It feels like in today's world,
we're taught to think that people can't change their minds
because what we get is all people who are so
very polarized. And yes, there are people who are very
stuck in their ways that I've noticed, especially people with
(35:37):
mental health problems, tend to be very inflexible, very rigid.
But parents care about their kids and if it means
helping their child by changing their ideas, most parents would
change their mind to help their child, is what I've
noticed to which is promising considering there is a lot
(35:58):
of conversation about the intergenerational fighting and butting heads, but
deep down, I think people are willing to change for
the best thing for their child.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah. I was gonna say, my example is just going
to be like I've definitely seen. Unfortunately, when something pretty
severe happens to the child to the teen, parents tend
to like, oh shit, okay, like I get it now,
so which you wish it wouldn't have to get to
there in the first place. But if everything ends up
okay and everyone's safe, then kind of is what it is.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Take home points. Generations are different, yes, and it's not
all good, it's not all bad, but it's worth it
to try and understand where other generations are coming from,
you know. That's that's one of the things I like
about mental health. Like growing up, I always just wanted
to understand why people are the way they are, and
(36:53):
understanding what generation people come from helps you understand why
they make the decisions that they do, who they are
exactly why they are who they are. So I think
it's it's fun. I appreciate you bringing up this topic
so that we can talk about this learn about from
each other. So love your boomers.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I think that's fair. I think by deck home point is, yeah,
just the when we can start to see the intersection
of like each generation's social, cultural, political, technological things that
have impacted who they are today, we can kind of
start to understand like why, you know we see some
of these generalizations. So yeah, I think it's important.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
So with that on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever we get
your podcasts you can find us, feel free to follow,
like subscribe, share with your friends, family, a loved one, whoever.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
You would like to leave us a five star review.
You can leave us a comment. Someone had left us
a comment when we did our which one was it?
The child stars and I talked about or we both
talked about what channel Nick Elodion was on. Yeah, so
there's there's a comment on our Spotify and our most
recent episode. So thank you, thank you for leaving that.
(38:09):
And uh, if anyone else feel free to lee was
a comment. I'm sor I for you all that good
stuff on social media at Millennial MC and our website
millenniaimac dot com. And with that, we'll see you in
our next episode. And remember take care of your mentals.
So today we are talking about my generation. So Eddie's
what's one thing you like about your generation? Our generation?
This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm doctor Justin Romano,
a child adolescent psychiatry fellow.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And I'm Medikoreo, a licensed clinical therapist. Our podcast is
here because we wanted to start a much newer conversation
about mental health.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Our goal is to teach you as much as we
can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
you enjoy today's episode.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
MMHC is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I Heartmah. What do I like about our generation? God,
it's gonna make me feel or sound old and probably
feel old too. I think the idea that we like
grew up without technology like we grew up with technology
is like interesting to think back too. I feel like
(01:08):
we as a generation kind of started to be more
open about like mental health and insecurities and stuff. So
I think that's positive. But I'll go with those two,
the growing up with like alongside technology and then the
maybe just more openness.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, I would. I would say the first thing that
came to mind for some reason was like burned CDs.
You love that about our generation, Yeah, being able to
just like put all your favorite songs on a CD
and like give it to your friend. And it was
Remember I had just like random hippie kids coming up
to me at school because they knew I was into music,
and they'd be like, hey, man, you got to check
(01:44):
out the Disco Biscuits. Here's a CD.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm like, great Disco Biscuits.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Shout out to old Johnny Burlew and the Disco Biscuits.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
He's the one who introduced Man. That's would have taken
me back. You think back to random ass CDs man
with just like random music on it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, and like you still find him every once in
a while and you're like, what the hell is on
this thing?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
When I sold my truck, I took the CD that
had been in the CD player. It had to have
been in there for at least six or seven years,
and I definitely took it. So it's somewhere. I think
it's in my car, right now, but I don't have
a CD player, so it might just be sitting in there,
But I man, it probably had Like I'm sure there
(02:33):
was like a Kesha song. I definitely had Friday by
Rebecca Black has like a funny like that was on there.
Definitely some like ass shaking music just that everything, every
piece of genre. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Oh, and millennials had the best ass shaking music, just
like I listened to some of the stuff that we
grew up with and I'm like, this is grotesque, Like
this is truly.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Off his braille section.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, like parents let us, they didn't let us, but
we listened to this.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, remember I've mentioned as a couple of times,
like the first time I downloaded the explicit version of
a song and was like holy shit, like this is
not this is not appropriate.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, speaking of generations, I mean, that's kind of what
we're talking about today. We're looking at differences across generations,
similarities between generations, just overall generations and their view on
mental health. This really comes from one of the classes
that I taught very early on in the semester. I
felt like it'd be a good idea just to kind
(03:41):
of revisit it. A lot of the topics we've talked
about bits and pieces here and there, but I thought
it'd be cool if we just kind of focused on it,
you know, over our time of working primarily with teens
and their families, Just and I definitely specialize in that,
we found that, like unsurprisingly, that there's differences between the
generations when it comes to their views on mental health,
especially if you work with a teen and their family
(04:03):
like you can, you can definitely see it like in
session sometimes, so we wanted to talk about it. One
thing I'll mention, and probably the inspiration behind this conversation
alongside with my class is the book The Anxious Generation,
right that I read a little while back by doctor
Jonathan Heighte. It came out where he basically talks about
(04:24):
like why he thinks gen Z is the quote anxious generation.
And if you haven't read the book yet, spoiler alert
or maybe pause right now and then come back to
the episode after you finish it, but if you want
a quick synopsis of it, basically he talks about, you know,
his main points are that gen Z had a lack
of a play based childhood, so they weren't taking risks.
(04:47):
They weren't, you know, leaving the house for hours at
a time and coming back when the street lights came on.
They weren't you know, getting into arguments and discourse with
their friends and then figuring it out as kids did
or do. Having the lack of a play based childhood,
he thinks is part of it. He also feels that
they're just overparenting by parents again impacting their ability to
(05:08):
take risks, impacting their ability to just kind of learn
through natural social behaviors and interactions. And then the last
one that he talks about is pretty obvious, and mister
or doctor Justin Romano over here gave a pretty important
ted talk about it, but just the overuse of phones,
the Internet, social media, all of the above. So that's
(05:30):
kind of his two cents on it, but really kind
of help shape the idea for this episode. Alongside with
the class that I taught very early on in the
semester this spring term.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So we want to just define what specific years the
different generations categorize into. So the baby boomers is kind
of the oldest one we'll be talking about, and these
are technically people from who were born in the years
nineteen forty six through nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
If you are, like Justin and I millennials, you most likely,
can we make that generalization, most likely your parents are
or somewhere in the gen X age, so maybe a
little older right on like the cusp of it. But
the next one is gen X, So that's about nineteen
sixty five to nineteen eighty. We're gonna say about for
all of this, just because it depends who you ask.
(06:19):
Leaders are so fluid and they really they run together.
So that's about where gen X is.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And actually, technically both of my parents are boomers fifty
five and fifty nine. They were a little bit older
than they had kids, I know.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Right, So see what happens when I assume I make
an ass out of myself now even you and me.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Which I like that my parents are boomers because I
love that timeframe like that. I really fell in love
with the music that they were into growing up. So
I've got a soft spot in my heart for boomers.
Even though it seems like there's a strong conflict between
millennials and boomers. Have you played the board game Millennials
Versus Boomers?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What is that they actually have like a full trivia
game where it's like you have to answer trivia questions
about each other's generations. Oh yeah, and then about your
own too, so I can actually get some points. But
I thought that was kind of an interesting game and
some good team building.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's a cool idea.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, next up after Gen xers, Yeah, we got millennials,
which are typically nineteen eighty one to nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We have gen Z, our current kind of well this
is this is where it's interesting. It's they're like our current,
like teens, but also it bleeds into gen Alpha. But
gen Z is about nineteen ninety seven to twenty ten,
which actually, if I think about it, our gen Z
our youngest ones are seventeen right now, so that miss
(07:48):
my mouth, right, No they're not. They're fifteen fifteen, so
yeah they're right yah, yeah, right right.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
The beginning of Jena yeah, Jen Alfa, yeah yeah, Jen
Alfha twenty eleven to twenty twenty five, and then the
new one, jen Beta is this year and onward as
of January. Yeah, it just changed.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, some other generations to think about or just to
be aware of. Is the greatest generation. I don't even
remember what time frame they said that was, but I
guess if they're so great. Sure, there's the Silent generation,
and then there's boomers too. Have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I had never heard of boomers Part two.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
No, Yeah, they're called like the Jones generation. So if
you have ever heard the phrase keeping up with the
Jones is, yeah, that's kind of where it came from,
like some in some way, shape or form, it came
from that. Oh interesting, they're related to each other. Yeah,
boomers too.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
The Jones generation is the cohort between Baby Boomers and
Gen X, with some defining characteristics, including the most who
did not grow up with World War Two veteran parents,
and as they reached adulthood there was no compulsory military
service and no defining political cause. So no wonder noe's
heard of?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Damn. The other one that we wanted to mention is
the Silent generation. They're characterized by and this is I mean,
there's definitely still people alive, but like the much older
characterized by things like the Great Depression in World War Two,
and they have a tending to They tend to draw
towards conformity and traditionalism. But one thing across the generations,
(09:28):
it's a common theme is just how much the impact
of social, political, and technological events have on each age range.
So even if all the events are are different, each
of those has some type of impact on each of
the generations.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
When we talked about our generation, your technology got brought up,
music got brought up. You know, there's a lot with
our generation culturally and politically that are very important to
us too. So the things that we go through define
us absolutely. The things that defines baby boomers. They are
traditionally hard working, traditional conservative in their social values. And
(10:06):
what I've noticed about baby boomers is that.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
They tend to be very private.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
They don't want to put a lot of there, or
at least before Facebook really blew up, they were a
little it's.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I feel like it's changed.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I do feel like boomers, like I remember my parents
growing up, it was it was let's not tell anyone anything,
let's not release anything, like, don't put your name out
there unless you absolutely have to. And then Facebook came along,
and then all of a sudden, it just seems like
Boomer's are sharing more than anyone.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Right, Yeah, that's hello, fuddy. Yeah, that's a good point
for Gen xers. We've got there. They tend to be independent.
Have you ever heard the term latchkey kids? Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, like the kids who just they had a latch key.
They could come home after school. There was no one
really to watch them. They just hung out and watched
the yan took care of themselves.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yep. Yeah, that was a new That was a new
phrase for me within the last year. And then when
I shared it with my class earlier, I had students
who are like, I've never heard that before, so that
was kind of cool to teach them something different. But
because of things like that, because of being independent, we
also see characteristics like being resourceful and also having like
some skepticism towards authority. I think if I go back
(11:22):
and look at the year range, you got sixty five
to eighty, there's some like free spiritedness in that year
range or some I don't want to call people like hippies,
but there's some rage against the authority for sure. That
was kind of going on in those years, even if
I wasn't there. That's what I've heard. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Millennials are typically seen as very socially conscious, very diverse,
and pretty tech savvy because they grew up alongside technology
and I saw A really interesting meme that kind of
struck home with me is that someone was a computer
trainer at their job and said that the younger kids
(12:06):
these days, the gen z says, teaching them like desktop
computer skills is like teaching the boomers desktop computer skills
because they didn't grow up with desktop computers. They mostly
had tablets and touch screens. So he says, yeah, this
newer generation doesn't know how to use a.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Computer has its own Yeah, every one of our students.
And I have seen this where a lot of schools
will give their let's just say, like middle high school,
like a laptop or a chromebook. I didn't have a
laptop to I was in college, so like they've grown
up with that now too, So I think that causes
its own differences too, Like a laptop is definitely different,
(12:43):
it's just kind of the use of it. And yeah,
that's interesting. I didn't know that. I never heard that.
Characteristics of our gen z ers they have like a
global perspective. They seem to be pretty in the know
about things, or at least have an idea that things
are going on in the world. Tech immersed and then
this idea of like being diverse and inclusive, I will say,
(13:03):
I mean working with teens. I don't know if you
would agree justin but like they seem to be pretty
inclusive and more open minded. Maybe not the ones that
we've lost to like some of this red pill super
right wing content, but they seem to be pretty diverse
and inclusive from everything I've seen.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
An important consideration to all of this is just looking
at each generation and a piece of privilege that they hold,
and especially for Jen Alpha, their privileges freedom from responsibilities
in a lot of sense, and care and guidance from adults.
Generation Alpha is probably the most looked after generation. Like
(13:46):
my son is too. He is Generation Alpha, and I
don't think there is really ever a time and you know,
he's still a toddler that people aren't watching him like
he is constantly unless he's sleeping, their eyes on him
at all times. And I think that's how most kids
in that generation have been raised.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, he's not currently a latch key kid.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
He is not a latch and you know, now that
I think of it, even while he's sleeping, we have
a monitor so that we can keep eyes on him
at all times. Like, yeah, that's just these kids are
growing up with constantly being supervised and watched.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, for gen Z, there's this increase in autonomy, things
like starting to drive to work at your first job.
They kind of have a more active role in family decisions,
whether or not it's they agree with the decision or
they want to participate in it and giving out like
the stereotype of an angsty team, but they tend to
be more involved with those kinds of things. They have
(14:45):
more opportunities for exploration. You think of starting to shift
towards getting to college age, starting to shift to you know,
being in high school, getting to choose things that you
want to do extracurriculars. There's an increase in legal protections.
It does depend on your state, but things like confidence
reality you can make your own medical decisions varies kind
of the ones you hit that teenage years, depending on
(15:05):
the state. You get some You definitely get some responsibility.
They have knowledge of technology, and then they start to
shift to kind of this flexibility to relocate as they
get older with the possibility of something like college or
traveling and doing things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Millennials, they tend to have more freedom to make independent
life choices. We're getting to the age now where millennials
are grown up, even though I think a lot of
millennials still see themselves as young. People still see themselves
as kind of kids.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I know I.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Struggle with that too, where I'm like, I'm still a kid.
I'm like, but I have a child.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
They also have a higher energy available for career and
personal goals. So this is the time of our life
where a lot of people are really hustling, trying to
make a name for themselves, trying to make enough money,
trying to afford a house. And Plus, millennials have somewhat
of an advantage because they do have this pretty solid
knowledge of technology.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
For Gen X, things like greater career and financial stability
seems to be there. Generally, they have authority and influences
in spaces that they are part of because of their
age and experience, and I think of something specifically like work.
And then they have access to the connections built over time. Naturally,
as you get older, you meet more people, you've built connections.
(16:21):
That's just it seems like a pretty natural thing that
happens as you get older.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
And then my favorite baby boomers, they're getting more freedom
from full time work. Although it seems like a lot
more boomers are having to work later into life because
of financial issues, and unfortunately for them, the economy seems
to be tanking, and I know a lot of older
people are really worried about that. Baby boomers tend to
have more access to specialized programs and potential access to
(16:49):
build on wealth. Like wealth builds wealth. They have the
money to invest and increase their money, which a lot
of younger generations are worried that they're going to be
not be in the same place bloomers are.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Wait, why is the economy thinking it?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
No particular.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Damn man. But all right, okay, so generations and mental health. Okay,
we've talked about a lot of stuff. We've given you
some some base knowledge, some generalizations. Oh I didn't say
(17:29):
that earlier. I wanted to say it, but I don't
take the opportunity to say now. These are generalizations. These
are not the end all be all. This does not
categorize characterize every single generation. There is differences, one hundred
percent differences based off of you know, how people grew up,
based off of experiences they've had. Just because some of
(17:51):
the things we're about to say may seem more on
the negative side does not mean that it's it fits
everybody and does not mean that people don't have the
opportunity to change or to learn. So just want to
throw that out there. These are generalizations, but you know,
there's some validity in it for sure, Like in doing
research and reading up on stuff for this episode of
(18:11):
my class, there's definitely some validity. So anyway, so looking
at the generations and mental health, so because of the
characteristics that we mentioned earlier and other things, each generation
appears to have a different view on mental health, and
it makes sense. The experiences you had growing up definitely
shape your worldview. Part of your worldview, even if it's
a small part, is how you view mental health. So again,
(18:35):
these are generalizations, but just things to keep in mind. Overall,
older generations like baby Boomers and Gen X, they do
tend to have a view on mental health that having
these struggles is a sign of weakness, and sometimes they
struggle to understand how someone can even have mental health struggles.
I think of my students, my teens have had over
(18:56):
the years of like, oh, well, they have everything they need,
what are like how are they having a hard time?
That makes no sense to me, you know, And so
I think because of that, it creates some maybe some animosity,
some headbutting across the different generations when it comes to
parents and their kids. But that's kind of what we
see when it comes to baby boomers and Gen X, Right.
(19:19):
They they're this generation that's grown up. They're hard working,
they've done things for themselves, they take care of themselves,
they're very resourceful. So why would anyone have a hard time.
You can just get yourself out of it, right, You
work harder and you'll be okay. So that's that's kind
of what we've seen in our work.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I noticed that some of my patients who are being
raised by boomers, and usually it's like a grandparent raising,
they'll make statements kind of like what you had mentioned
where it's like they got a roof over their head,
they got food on the table, Like what do they
have to be depressed about? And it's like a lot.
Lot's a lot that can be depressed about. And you know,
(19:56):
in the grand scheme of things, like yeah, it's wonderful
that you have a roof over your head and food
on your table, but that doesn't mean that genetically you're
not predispositioned to be depressed or have things like schizophrenia
or bipolar disorder. Like, it's not always so cut and dry,
like just because you have these amenities doesn't mean that
you can avoid mental health complications altogether. M But I mean,
(20:19):
they did grow up in a time where it was
that pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality, and I
do think that it is changing. This is kind of
the mindset that boomers had when they were younger. But
I think a lot of boomers are starting to listen
to younger generations be flexible and plastic in their thinking
(20:39):
so that they can actually adjust it. So I don't
think they're all like that still, but that seems like
it was the definite prevailing thought.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Given what we've talked about already and even just your
experience and your work. Do you feel like you can
understand where that view comes from? For Gen X baby boomers,
this like just pull yourself by, pull yourself up by bootstraps,
or work hard and you can get through it. Does
that make sense to you in a way?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yes, Yeah, Because I think the brain goes to whatever
answer is going to be the easiest and the answer
that's going to not make you think too much.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
So if you just.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Say, oh, they just need to work harder. Oh, there's
not really a big issue, it's just kind of their fault.
Then you do not actually have to fix the problem,
You don't actually have to think about what the solutions are,
what's causing it. You can just kind of write it
off and keep going. So I think it was just
easier for that generation. And I think they were really
(21:37):
very focused on working, like they were the generation especially,
I've seen it in my parents too. They were under
the belief that you worked, you worked to the bone,
like you worked hard and sacrificed yourself for your work.
And that's changing in the younger generations, which I think
is a good and healthy thing. But it seems like
(21:57):
for the boomer generation, anything that god in the way
of work was bad. It needed to be ignored and
you needed to just focus on work and keep pushing.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It's like the idea of like, worked in the same
company for forty seven years, never took a sick day
and got oh yeah days left over.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, And that's usually a point of pride for boomers, right, Yeah,
I never took a sick day, never missed a day,
where you know, it was very loyal and.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I mean time off is one I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, it's healthy.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Balance is good, Yes, yeah, balance is good.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I'm glad these things have changed, but that's what are
our older generations, our boomers did have growing up.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Another point to maybe highlight or emphasize, like that perspective,
worked hard, did all these things, never took a day off,
and look at what we ended up with. It's like, yeah,
that's a positive thing. You got a house to carry,
your kids, your family, all these things like those are
things to be very prideful about and to be very
proud of. And it's an opportunity to reflect and know
(23:03):
that if that's the end goal, there's not just one
way to get there. You don't have to beat yourself
up over a job for this many years, and you
don't have to stick things out. Sometimes sometimes you can
get up and leave try something different. So anyway, I
guess yes, the answer I think both of us can
come through is it makes sense this perspective. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
One thing my dad's kind of talked about in the past,
which I think was a really excellent point, was that
the boomers were the hippie generation in the sixties, and
at the time everyone thought that they were going to
change everything, they were going to stop being so corporately minded,
they were going to stop being so money focused, and
then they ended up becoming the exact same thing that
they were rebelling against, which is fascinating to me that
(23:47):
it was kind of hypocrisy, like they were supposed to
change everything and then ended up becoming what they hated.
I think that's interesting that the allure of the money
just was too much.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
At some point, the the bell bottom jeans and the
peace signed necklace had to get traded in for the
suit and time.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's the the you know, I've
just heard that so many times age old phrase.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yeah, the doobie had to run out of flame. At
some point. We're gonna have more of these. We'll keep
thinking of.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
The Volks ran out of gas.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
God damn it, they made it electric. Okay, So uh
all right, let's let's we gotta talk about the younger
people too a little bit. We look at the younger generations, right,
we got millennials, we got gm zuh. There seem to
be some factors that contribute to their overall generational openness
to mental health, right, mental health literacy. I think is
(24:49):
a huge one. People just have a better understanding of
mental health. They are exposed to it more, they've learned,
they've been more curious about it. I think when you
have a generation that's older, that's all about working hard,
not letting things get in the way. We're not taking
the time to maybe stop and think of like why
am I struggling with this? Or why am I sad?
Or why am I feeling this way? So I think
(25:11):
these younger generations are more open to finding out those answers.
There's definitely less in stigma, there's more normalization about it,
and then the increase access to information about mental health.
I will say if I had a nickel for every
time I had a teen that was like fascinated by
the DSM five that I had on my desk, I'd
(25:31):
have about a dollar. And that's in like the almost
eight years of working. That's pretty good. So I don't know,
that's just it's anecdotal, but there's there's definitely some there's
interest in it, and maybe in more of a way
than before than ever before.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I think a big piece of that too, is a
piece of that openness is the fact that social media
has given people a way to hear perspectives that they
otherwise wouldn't have heard, especially as someone who grew up
in Wyoming where it's mostly just white people. Being able
(26:08):
to see other people's perspective from around the world on
social media that was such a new thing. It's crazy
that it's gone from learning other people's point of views
to just being indoctrinated and do extremism. But you know,
at the beginning, it was a really wonderful thing and
it really did help people understand other people's perspectives.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
There was, for sure, and even probably still now, but
there's definitely like an emphasis on just being real and
like learning like realness like really seem to do well
on social media for long, and it probably still does,
but there's definitely it's definitely shifted over the last four
or five years if you think of something like TikTok
and Instagram. But one thing that I will say that
(26:51):
I think kind of maybe plagues the younger generations when
it comes to mental health struggles is this idea of
if everybody has mental health, if everybody is depressed, if
everyone is anxious, if everyone has autism, does anyone really
have mental health concerns depression, anxiety, autism, And I think
it's a fair question. I think I think there's definitely
(27:12):
we had a really good discussion on this in my class.
I think someone it was part of like this lecture,
but also someone had brought in like an article about
TikTok specifically and self diagnosis. There is probably this idea
of like we may be diagnosing things more frequently, or
we probably are diagnosed it. We are diagnosing things more frequently.
(27:33):
What is the reason for that? Are we overdiagnosing our
people self diagnosing too much? Are we just better at
finding it? I don't know, but I think I feel
like it's a fair question, like if everyone has it,
does anyone really have it?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, we're starting to understand more and more about mental
health issues. Is that a lot of times it's a spectrum,
Like you might only be like a little tiny bit depressed,
but that's still you go through times of feeling depressed
and that's normal. But when it gets to being in
the way of your life, that's when we start to
pathologize it and say like, Okay, maybe you need some
help for that for depression.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, And I feel like I don't know if you've
heard anything of this, and you know, we haven't had
a new DSM and I'm not even going to count
the text redvice, but we haven't had a new DSM
since twenty thirteen. But I feel like for a while
people have been saying like, oh, the next one is
going to be more of like things will be on
a spectrum. I don't know if you've heard that, but
I think like that might be the direction we're going
(28:26):
in of like, yes, maybe more people were diagnosed, but
it's because we have this more spectrum that maybe better
fits the acuity and intensity of like symptoms and what
people are dealing with.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I think you made a really good point earlier that
I saw that quite a bit in clinical practice, especially
over COVID of especially with all the social media influencers
and everything, a lot of kids were coming in saying
like I have autism, I have dissociative personality disorder, I
have X, Y and Z. You diagnose me and treat
(29:00):
and it's like, whoa where did you hear about this?
And nine times out of ten it was, oh, there
was an influencer there. I heard it on TikTok, which
I mean, I'm sure there are some people that really
legitimately had those things, and TikTok taught them about it
and got them to understand it a little bit better.
But it's kind of a double edged sword there, because
it seemed like I remember watching a lot of ADHD
(29:22):
videos where they were talking about stuff like oh, if
you do this, you have ADHD. Yeah, it's like, that's
not a diagnostic criteria, that's not a symptom. That's just
this one random person. So there's just a lot of
bad information out there on social media.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
If you sleep with your hand under your chin, you
have autism? What the fuck? What?
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, just weird stuff like that, Right, it could apply
to anyone, but it doesn't really apply to every It
was just yeah, silly.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And that you know, that might have been a sign
when that kind of content was starting to take off
of like oh well, this is what's like really good
in the views of these like fake diagnostic criteria where
people are like searching out Like when you couple it
with generations that are more curious about mental health and
are seeking information, and then instead of turning to books
and texts and stuff which are born to read, you
(30:16):
turn to short form videos because it's easier to get
information that way sometimes and then you're so you're looking
for the information and then you find it. Look ten
signs you have autism? Hell yeah, I sleep with my
hand under my chin autism. Yeah, it's tricky. So that's
kind of the main pieces we want to share today.
But some things some to discuss and then kind of
(30:38):
go over justin in your practice. Like what I know,
we both of us primarily focused with teens, but because
of that we also get exposed to their parents and
even their grandparents are caregivers and those are usually of
a different generation. But what generational differences have you noticed
regarding mental health in your own practice?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
The most odd one is just the technology that kids
these days don't socialize in person very much anymore. Most
of their social life is on the phone, on the xbox,
on the computer, So most of their free time is
spent isolating to their room. And every single day I've
(31:19):
got families coming in saying like, I can't get my
kid out of the room. They're in there for eight
hours a day on their devices and tuning out the world.
Families don't really seem to spend that much time together.
Like family used to go on walks together, They used
to go out together and do fun things. I have
so many families that just tell me, like, I've got
nothing in common with my parents. They don't foster any
(31:43):
of these interests with them, so they're like, like, I
I'll ask families all the time, what do you do
for fun together? And they have absolutely nothing because they
have such widely different lives. And the funny thing is
is now the parents are also addicted to their screens
in separate rooms, on their phones, doing completely opposite things,
(32:04):
and it just feels like like this younger generation is
so disconnected. And I tell my young people all the
time that the studies are showing that this seems to
be the most lonely generation in history, and it's because
they're not having those face to face interactions with their peers.
They're choosing to have those interactions on their phones, and
(32:26):
those tend to make you more lonely in the long run.
Is having those online relationships.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
If I were to mention something different, probably just the
the headbutting of like between generations when it comes to
parents and their kids, caregivers and their kids, you know,
foster parents and their kids, whatever it is, whatever adult
they have in their life just the differences and you hear, oh,
you know kids these days and things like that I
think are something that I see a lot, And it's
(32:54):
not it's not to shit on any generation. It's just
trends that we notice.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
So how do is this information about differences in generations?
How does it affect our work?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Like?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Does is it useful information for us? What do you think?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I mean? Shit? I hope so. Because we just talked
about it for like thirty.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Minutes, we wouldn't be doing the episode otherwise.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah. I think I've been talking about class a lot
about this again, teaching cultural foundations, Like base information is
really good to have. General information is really good to have.
Is it going to guide every single interaction we have
with a client? Maybe it'll have some kind of impact.
Is it going to answer every single question we have
(33:36):
about a client? Fuck? No, right, Because people are so
different from each other, we have to look at the individual.
But I think having the general knowledge is really important
because we can at least have this idea of like, Okay,
these kids probably have an understanding of technology and social media. You,
so if they do, I can probably talk about social
media pretty openly and pretty directly because they know exactly
(33:57):
what I'm talking about. So I think it helps the
word work. I think it helps us to just kind
of be knowledgeable about who we're working with and what
kind of experiences they may have or have had, or
are going to have. It's just I think it's good
to have the info.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
You know, what I've very much learned in my career
is that people's parents aren't always the one raising the child.
There's a lot of non traditional families out there. There's
a lot of grandparents raising their grandkids. There's a lot
of foster care stuff. There's a lot of interesting intergenerational play,
(34:31):
and you never know what generation is going to get
matched up with another generation and how they're going to mesh.
So it's interesting to see that in my job, and
the similarities in certain conflicts, like when there's you know,
boomer grandparents raising their kids kind of the same trends
that keep popping up in those families is interesting to me.
But yeah, it's useful to know. You know, the more
(34:52):
information and the more we understand other people and our patients,
the better.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Have you ever seen any times or like a parent
caregiver whoever's in charge is kind of flip their stance
on something during the time you work with, maybe stop
saying that their kid is soft or that they just
got to kind of figure it out or deal with it.
Have you ever seen anything like that?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, I think absolutely. People. It feels like in today's world,
we're taught to think that people can't change their minds
because what we get is all people who are so
very polarized. And yes, there are people who are very
stuck in their ways that I've noticed, especially people with
(35:37):
mental health problems, tend to be very inflexible, very rigid.
But parents care about their kids and if it means
helping their child by changing their ideas, most parents would
change their mind to help their child, is what I've
noticed to which is promising considering there is a lot
(35:58):
of conversation about the intergenerational fighting and butting heads, but
deep down, I think people are willing to change for
the best thing for their child.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah. I was gonna say, my example is just going
to be like I've definitely seen. Unfortunately, when something pretty
severe happens to the child to the teen, parents tend
to like, oh shit, okay, like I get it now,
so which you wish it wouldn't have to get to
there in the first place. But if everything ends up
okay and everyone's safe, then kind of is what it is.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Take home points. Generations are different, yes, and it's not
all good, it's not all bad, but it's worth it
to try and understand where other generations are coming from,
you know. That's that's one of the things I like
about mental health. Like growing up, I always just wanted
to understand why people are the way they are, and
(36:53):
understanding what generation people come from helps you understand why
they make the decisions that they do, who they are
exactly why they are who they are. So I think
it's it's fun. I appreciate you bringing up this topic
so that we can talk about this learn about from
each other. So love your boomers.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I think that's fair. I think by deck home point is, yeah,
just the when we can start to see the intersection
of like each generation's social, cultural, political, technological things that
have impacted who they are today, we can kind of
start to understand like why, you know we see some
of these generalizations. So yeah, I think it's important.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
So with that on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever we get
your podcasts you can find us, feel free to follow,
like subscribe, share with your friends, family, a loved one, whoever.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
You would like to leave us a five star review.
You can leave us a comment. Someone had left us
a comment when we did our which one was it?
The child stars and I talked about or we both
talked about what channel Nick Elodion was on. Yeah, so
there's there's a comment on our Spotify and our most
recent episode. So thank you, thank you for leaving that.
(38:09):
And uh, if anyone else feel free to lee was
a comment. I'm sor I for you all that good
stuff on social media at Millennial MC and our website
millenniaimac dot com. And with that, we'll see you in
our next episode. And remember take care of your mentals.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!