What’s the single biggest problem you’re facing today that has a huge impact on your mental health?

Everyone in my friend group is between 20-26, and for the guys it’s mostly been dealing with their self image. Their careers aren’t what they thought it would be, and most struggle with trying to get to some ideal body standard.

For the girls, it’s even worse. Most of them have been diagnosed with an eating disorder, probably due to the constant influence of people they see online.

So in a nutshell, the aspiration to be the same as “everyone else”, which eventually disappoints when they realise that what they want is unobtainable without drugs, surgery, luck or other extraordinary measures.

Job prospects. I've been lucky enough that my passion for technology has paid off but that took nearly a decade of grinding in retail.

As an early 20-something year old, I don't feel like I can contribute any meaningful solutions or insights. Which ironically the article states as one of the core issues (low autonomy creates a sense of low efficacy.)

How would you describe your mental health? How would you describe, on aggregate, the mental health of your peers?

If you could waive your magic wand to help your generation, what one thing would you ask for?

I don't feel like I'm representative of the mental health challenges of my generation (early Zoomers). I've been having psychiatric help since I was 9yo and it took until early adolescence that I would say I made true progress, it was a very long and challenging road but paid off in the end.

I'd honestly say my peers (i.e. my direct friend group) deal with mental health challenges extremely well and we are extremely open to talking about our struggles. Social media amplifies the loudest voices but I would argue on aggregate Zoomers are better off mentally than a lot of prior generations. Mental health struggles happened in every generation, these young adults are just more willing to talk about it.

I wrote about it above, but clearer job prospects and more reasonable housing option as they are big stresses. I'm lucky enough to be gainfully employed, but many of my friends have been stuck in dead-end jobs with no prospects. Another concerning trend in that vein is all of my friends, including me, have taken extended leaves from the job market at one point in time.