A recent study released revealed today’s young adults experience more stress than the average American.
There are a wide variety of reasons for stress and a lot of ways to combat stress.
Victoria Joyner, 22, says she stresses mostly about bills and health situations. While she says stress doesn’t affect her physically beyond a headache, it does impact her mentally.
“I get depressed when I’m stressed and scared,” she said. “Or if I can’t control an outcome of certain situations.”
Joyner, a customer service agent for Delta airlines, added that she believes she isn’t much different than the average young adult.
Stress can impact the body in a variety of ways. For example, Doctor V. Gardner, who is a doctor at The Henry Ford Healthcare System, says stress can sometimes cause physical symptoms that range from stomach aches and headaches to hives and panic attacks. He adds cognitive problems, such as memory issues and concentration, can also result from stress.
According to Dr. Gardner, the side effects from stress can interfere with the day-to-day functions. Consequently, if stress is interfering with day-to-day function and is expressed through physical complaints, then there might be a need to peruse intervention.
He suggests contacting a primary care physician. That physician might then refer you to a physco-therapist, which he says is the first intervention that is recommended. He believes that psychotropic medication can also be recommended as a supplement to psychotherapy.
Customer service agent Joyner says that her stress levels aren’t high enough to seek medical attention. Instead, she likes to roller skate or shop.
“Anything to take my mind off [the things that are stressing me out],” she said.
But the question of why young adults are more stressed that the average American still lingers.
Joyner, who recently relocated to Richmond, Virginia because of her job, thinks it is “because that’s the time of you’re life that you are trying to settle and get your self together.”
Ryan Jackson, 24, believes young adults experience more stress than any other group because they have exposed to more things than a older person. He works as a Cash Lead at Comerica Park.
“I stress out about not making it in life and not achieving my goals in life, he said.” Being judged on my work ethic and character are also stressors.”
Instead, Susan Brooks, who is the blogger of Thistlethwaite, says in her blog that it’s much more serious.
“[They] have had their future stolen,” she said. “They are literally not making a future, putting off marriage and having children, for example, because they cannot afford it; the future of their children, too, is being taken.”
In her blog on Thistlethwaite, Brooks blames their stolen future on the banking crisis that helped create the most recent Depression in America. She finds it ironic that the housing market is impacting young adults when they didn’t even own homes at the time.
Additionally, jobs for many recent college graduates are hard to come by, especially in their fields.
She wrote, “They write about being ‘crippled by college debt and graduated into a struggling economy…[with] little chance to find gainful employment in their chosen fields.’ They ‘take temporary jobs they are overqualified for.”
Whatever the causes of stress in young adults, Dr. Gardner says coping skills is important in stress management: “We all have stressors, positive or negative, but it’s about coping with them.”
What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think that millennials are more stressed out than any other group? Do you think society needs to provide better opportunities for millennials to have a better futures? Share your thoughts with us.
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