Research Essay: Being Depressed

Written by: Isioma Obanya

THE MOST DEPRESSED GENERATION

A PERSONAL RESEARCH ESSAY

The generation Z, popularly known as gen z have been tagged the most depressed generation that has been on the earth surface, but can this be true? Due to the evolution of technology and thing like social media teenagers and youth of this generation have found it easier to express themselves about things that would normally be secret.

WHAT IS DEPRESSION

Basically, depression is pure sadness of not knowing why you are sad or why you feel down. Most times we know why we fell down but we are too comfortable in our sadness to try come out of it. Depression has to do with our mental state of mind and what we feed it. When someone feeds his or her mental mind with bad things you do not expect their minds to be strong and block out negativity. So the question is what do this generation feed their minds with that causes them to fall into easy depression?

WHAT IS THE LIKELY CAUSE OF DEPRESSION IN GEN Z

1. Pressure: There has been a standard put for everyone in this generation. I must be as smart as this to be considered a success, I must be as rich as this to not be called a loser. The pressure to be successful even though that kind of life is not cut out for you, so that you are not called a loser. You want to impress everyone at the cost of your happiness.

2. Acute stress: Stress is more than that of physical but it can also be emotional, mental, psychological and the rest. The youth of this current generation are actually stressed mentally than you can actually think due to the pressure. They want to fit in at all cost and not being left out is like a dream come true.

3. Identity clash: This particular point has more that meets the eyes.     Being confused about certain thigs because you do not really know who you are. This identity clash can be caused by a lot of things, for example: forcing a life unto your child, the pressure of being perfect, the competition between pairs on who is more trendy or how the high schoolers call it “who is more cool?”

4. Bullying: This is the use of force to dominate one who is lesser or timid.  Do you know that bullying is one of the major cause of depression which later leads to suicide? Picking on other people just because they cannot afford something or choose to do something differently is not proper

ROLE OF PARENTS ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF GENERATION Z

Neglect, which is one of the major reason this generation is thrown into depression is caused by the lack of proper attention from either one or both of the parent.

Feminism has pulled out the mothers from the home which leaves them with little or no time to bond with the kids. Women should be advised take up jobs whereby they still have enough time to bond with their kids, this also includes with the men.

Most kids grow up not knowing how to relate with their fathers due to the fact that they were not present for most of their childhood. For girls, they grow up looking for a man’s love and end up falling for anyone who professes love to her while the boys, without a father figure in the home tends to go astray and confused about the right path, and both case scenarios can lead to depression

Growing up in a normal household today, the children are taught to act a certain way, follow a certain path so that they are seen as normal. This leads to children hiding their true selves from their parents. When the kids hide themselves the parents cannot correct their wrong doings which leads them to go astray without their knowledge.

ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF GEN Z

Social media has a very big impact on the generation z as it tells them the latest cloth to buy, what’s best to eat, what’s best to watch, what is normal.

They have painted a certain standard which everyone should follow and anyone who cannot keep up or fall out of line is back clashed, bullied or have more horrible things done to them. This leads to depression. Even those who manage to keep up, keep up because they do not want to be bullied and not because they love the lifestyle.

CONCLUSION

Depression has always been in the picture but the fact that it keeps increasing in a certain generation with a certain age rage calls for alarm, and a study to reduce the numbers drastically.