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From Boomers to Zoomers- How We See Mental Health By Generation · Millennial Mental Health Channel

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Speaker 1: So today we are talking about my generation. So Eddie's
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Speaker 1: what's one thing you like about your generation? Our generation?
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Speaker 1: This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm doctor Justin Romano,
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Speaker 1: a child adolescent psychiatry fellow.
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Speaker 2: And I'm Medikoreo, a licensed clinical therapist. Our podcast is
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Speaker 2: here because we wanted to start a much newer conversation
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Speaker 2: about mental health.
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Speaker 1: Our goal is to teach you as much as we
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Speaker 1: can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
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Speaker 1: the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
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Speaker 1: psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
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Speaker 2: Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
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Speaker 2: you enjoy today's episode.
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Speaker 1: MMHC is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia.
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Speaker 2: I Heartmah. What do I like about our generation? God,
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Speaker 2: it's gonna make me feel or sound old and probably
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Speaker 2: feel old too. I think the idea that we like
1:00
Speaker 2: grew up without technology like we grew up with technology
1:05
Speaker 2: is like interesting to think back too. I feel like
1:08
Speaker 2: we as a generation kind of started to be more
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Speaker 2: open about like mental health and insecurities and stuff. So
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Speaker 2: I think that's positive. But I'll go with those two,
1:17
Speaker 2: the growing up with like alongside technology and then the
1:22
Speaker 2: maybe just more openness.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would. I would say the first thing that
1:26
Speaker 1: came to mind for some reason was like burned CDs.
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Speaker 1: You love that about our generation, Yeah, being able to
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Speaker 1: just like put all your favorite songs on a CD
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Speaker 1: and like give it to your friend. And it was
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Speaker 1: Remember I had just like random hippie kids coming up
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Speaker 1: to me at school because they knew I was into music,
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Speaker 1: and they'd be like, hey, man, you got to check
1:44
Speaker 1: out the Disco Biscuits. Here's a CD.
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Speaker 2: I'm like, great Disco Biscuits.
1:51
Speaker 1: Shout out to old Johnny Burlew and the Disco Biscuits.
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Speaker 2: He's the one who introduced Man. That's would have taken
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Speaker 2: me back. You think back to random ass CDs man
2:02
Speaker 2: with just like random music on it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you still find him every once in
2:09
Speaker 1: a while and you're like, what the hell is on
2:11
Speaker 1: this thing?
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Speaker 2: When I sold my truck, I took the CD that
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Speaker 2: had been in the CD player. It had to have
2:18
Speaker 2: been in there for at least six or seven years,
2:22
Speaker 2: and I definitely took it. So it's somewhere. I think
2:25
Speaker 2: it's in my car, right now, but I don't have
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Speaker 2: a CD player, so it might just be sitting in there,
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Speaker 2: But I man, it probably had Like I'm sure there
2:33
Speaker 2: was like a Kesha song. I definitely had Friday by
2:36
Speaker 2: Rebecca Black has like a funny like that was on there.
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Speaker 2: Definitely some like ass shaking music just that everything, every
2:44
Speaker 2: piece of genre. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Oh, and millennials had the best ass shaking music, just
2:50
Speaker 1: like I listened to some of the stuff that we
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Speaker 1: grew up with and I'm like, this is grotesque, Like
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Speaker 1: this is truly.
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Speaker 2: Off his braille section.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, like parents let us, they didn't let us, but
3:01
Speaker 1: we listened to this.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Well, remember I've mentioned as a couple of times,
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Speaker 2: like the first time I downloaded the explicit version of
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Speaker 2: a song and was like holy shit, like this is
3:13
Speaker 2: not this is not appropriate.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, it's crazy.
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Speaker 2: Well, speaking of generations, I mean, that's kind of what
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Speaker 2: we're talking about today. We're looking at differences across generations,
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Speaker 2: similarities between generations, just overall generations and their view on
3:34
Speaker 2: mental health. This really comes from one of the classes
3:37
Speaker 2: that I taught very early on in the semester. I
3:40
Speaker 2: felt like it'd be a good idea just to kind
3:41
Speaker 2: of revisit it. A lot of the topics we've talked
3:43
Speaker 2: about bits and pieces here and there, but I thought
3:46
Speaker 2: it'd be cool if we just kind of focused on it,
3:49
Speaker 2: you know, over our time of working primarily with teens
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Speaker 2: and their families, Just and I definitely specialize in that,
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Speaker 2: we found that, like unsurprisingly, that there's differences between the
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Speaker 2: generations when it comes to their views on mental health,
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Speaker 2: especially if you work with a teen and their family
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Speaker 2: like you can, you can definitely see it like in
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Speaker 2: session sometimes, so we wanted to talk about it. One
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Speaker 2: thing I'll mention, and probably the inspiration behind this conversation
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Speaker 2: alongside with my class is the book The Anxious Generation,
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Speaker 2: right that I read a little while back by doctor
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Speaker 2: Jonathan Heighte. It came out where he basically talks about
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Speaker 2: like why he thinks gen Z is the quote anxious generation.
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Speaker 2: And if you haven't read the book yet, spoiler alert
4:31
Speaker 2: or maybe pause right now and then come back to
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Speaker 2: the episode after you finish it, but if you want
4:36
Speaker 2: a quick synopsis of it, basically he talks about, you know,
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Speaker 2: his main points are that gen Z had a lack
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Speaker 2: of a play based childhood, so they weren't taking risks.
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Speaker 2: They weren't, you know, leaving the house for hours at
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Speaker 2: a time and coming back when the street lights came on.
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Speaker 2: They weren't you know, getting into arguments and discourse with
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Speaker 2: their friends and then figuring it out as kids did
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Speaker 2: or do. Having the lack of a play based childhood,
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Speaker 2: he thinks is part of it. He also feels that
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Speaker 2: they're just overparenting by parents again impacting their ability to
5:08
Speaker 2: take risks, impacting their ability to just kind of learn
5:11
Speaker 2: through natural social behaviors and interactions. And then the last
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Speaker 2: one that he talks about is pretty obvious, and mister
5:20
Speaker 2: or doctor Justin Romano over here gave a pretty important
5:23
Speaker 2: ted talk about it, but just the overuse of phones,
5:26
Speaker 2: the Internet, social media, all of the above. So that's
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Speaker 2: kind of his two cents on it, but really kind
5:32
Speaker 2: of help shape the idea for this episode. Alongside with
5:35
Speaker 2: the class that I taught very early on in the
5:38
Speaker 2: semester this spring term.
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Speaker 1: So we want to just define what specific years the
5:43
Speaker 1: different generations categorize into. So the baby boomers is kind
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Speaker 1: of the oldest one we'll be talking about, and these
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Speaker 1: are technically people from who were born in the years
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Speaker 1: nineteen forty six through nineteen sixty four.
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Speaker 2: If you are, like Justin and I millennials, you most likely,
6:01
Speaker 2: can we make that generalization, most likely your parents are
6:05
Speaker 2: or somewhere in the gen X age, so maybe a
6:07
Speaker 2: little older right on like the cusp of it. But
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Speaker 2: the next one is gen X, So that's about nineteen
6:12
Speaker 2: sixty five to nineteen eighty. We're gonna say about for
6:16
Speaker 2: all of this, just because it depends who you ask.
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Speaker 2: Leaders are so fluid and they really they run together.
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Speaker 2: So that's about where gen X is.
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Speaker 1: And actually, technically both of my parents are boomers fifty
6:29
Speaker 1: five and fifty nine. They were a little bit older
6:31
Speaker 1: than they had kids, I know.
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Speaker 2: Right, So see what happens when I assume I make
6:35
Speaker 2: an ass out of myself now even you and me.
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Speaker 1: Which I like that my parents are boomers because I
6:44
Speaker 1: love that timeframe like that. I really fell in love
6:47
Speaker 1: with the music that they were into growing up. So
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Speaker 1: I've got a soft spot in my heart for boomers.
6:52
Speaker 1: Even though it seems like there's a strong conflict between
6:56
Speaker 1: millennials and boomers. Have you played the board game Millennials
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Speaker 1: Versus Boomers?
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Speaker 2: No?
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Speaker 1: What is that they actually have like a full trivia
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Speaker 1: game where it's like you have to answer trivia questions
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Speaker 1: about each other's generations. Oh yeah, and then about your
7:11
Speaker 1: own too, so I can actually get some points. But
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Speaker 1: I thought that was kind of an interesting game and
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Speaker 1: some good team building.
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Speaker 2: That's a cool idea.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, next up after Gen xers, Yeah, we got millennials,
7:23
Speaker 1: which are typically nineteen eighty one to nineteen ninety six.
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Speaker 2: We have gen Z, our current kind of well this
7:31
Speaker 2: is this is where it's interesting. It's they're like our current,
7:33
Speaker 2: like teens, but also it bleeds into gen Alpha. But
7:36
Speaker 2: gen Z is about nineteen ninety seven to twenty ten,
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Speaker 2: which actually, if I think about it, our gen Z
7:43
Speaker 2: our youngest ones are seventeen right now, so that miss
7:48
Speaker 2: my mouth, right, No they're not. They're fifteen fifteen, so
7:51
Speaker 2: yeah they're right yah, yeah, right right.
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Speaker 1: The beginning of Jena yeah, Jen Alfa, yeah yeah, Jen
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Speaker 1: Alfha twenty eleven to twenty twenty five, and then the
8:01
Speaker 1: new one, jen Beta is this year and onward as
8:04
Speaker 1: of January. Yeah, it just changed.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, some other generations to think about or just to
8:12
Speaker 2: be aware of. Is the greatest generation. I don't even
8:15
Speaker 2: remember what time frame they said that was, but I
8:16
Speaker 2: guess if they're so great. Sure, there's the Silent generation,
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Speaker 2: and then there's boomers too. Have you ever heard of that?
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Speaker 1: I had never heard of boomers Part two.
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Speaker 2: No, Yeah, they're called like the Jones generation. So if
8:29
Speaker 2: you have ever heard the phrase keeping up with the
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Speaker 2: Jones is, yeah, that's kind of where it came from,
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Speaker 2: like some in some way, shape or form, it came
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Speaker 2: from that. Oh interesting, they're related to each other. Yeah,
8:39
Speaker 2: boomers too.
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Speaker 1: The Jones generation is the cohort between Baby Boomers and
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Speaker 1: Gen X, with some defining characteristics, including the most who
8:48
Speaker 1: did not grow up with World War Two veteran parents,
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Speaker 1: and as they reached adulthood there was no compulsory military
8:55
Speaker 1: service and no defining political cause. So no wonder noe's
9:00
Speaker 1: heard of?
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Speaker 2: Damn. The other one that we wanted to mention is
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Speaker 2: the Silent generation. They're characterized by and this is I mean,
9:11
Speaker 2: there's definitely still people alive, but like the much older
9:15
Speaker 2: characterized by things like the Great Depression in World War Two,
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Speaker 2: and they have a tending to They tend to draw
9:21
Speaker 2: towards conformity and traditionalism. But one thing across the generations,
9:28
Speaker 2: it's a common theme is just how much the impact
9:31
Speaker 2: of social, political, and technological events have on each age range.
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Speaker 2: So even if all the events are are different, each
9:39
Speaker 2: of those has some type of impact on each of
9:42
Speaker 2: the generations.
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Speaker 1: When we talked about our generation, your technology got brought up,
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Speaker 1: music got brought up. You know, there's a lot with
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Speaker 1: our generation culturally and politically that are very important to
9:53
Speaker 1: us too. So the things that we go through define
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Speaker 1: us absolutely. The things that defines baby boomers. They are
10:01
Speaker 1: traditionally hard working, traditional conservative in their social values. And
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Speaker 1: what I've noticed about baby boomers is that.
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Speaker 2: They tend to be very private.
10:10
Speaker 1: They don't want to put a lot of there, or
10:12
Speaker 1: at least before Facebook really blew up, they were a
10:15
Speaker 1: little it's.
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Speaker 2: I feel like it's changed.
10:19
Speaker 1: I do feel like boomers, like I remember my parents
10:22
Speaker 1: growing up, it was it was let's not tell anyone anything,
10:26
Speaker 1: let's not release anything, like, don't put your name out
10:28
Speaker 1: there unless you absolutely have to. And then Facebook came along,
10:31
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, it just seems like
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Speaker 1: Boomer's are sharing more than anyone.
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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's hello, fuddy. Yeah, that's a good point
10:39
Speaker 2: for Gen xers. We've got there. They tend to be independent.
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Speaker 2: Have you ever heard the term latchkey kids? Yes?
10:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, like the kids who just they had a latch key.
10:49
Speaker 1: They could come home after school. There was no one
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Speaker 1: really to watch them. They just hung out and watched
10:56
Speaker 1: the yan took care of themselves.
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Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, that was a new That was a new
11:01
Speaker 2: phrase for me within the last year. And then when
11:04
Speaker 2: I shared it with my class earlier, I had students
11:06
Speaker 2: who are like, I've never heard that before, so that
11:08
Speaker 2: was kind of cool to teach them something different. But
11:11
Speaker 2: because of things like that, because of being independent, we
11:14
Speaker 2: also see characteristics like being resourceful and also having like
11:18
Speaker 2: some skepticism towards authority. I think if I go back
11:22
Speaker 2: and look at the year range, you got sixty five
11:25
Speaker 2: to eighty, there's some like free spiritedness in that year
11:30
Speaker 2: range or some I don't want to call people like hippies,
11:32
Speaker 2: but there's some rage against the authority for sure. That
11:36
Speaker 2: was kind of going on in those years, even if
11:38
Speaker 2: I wasn't there. That's what I've heard. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Millennials are typically seen as very socially conscious, very diverse,
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Speaker 1: and pretty tech savvy because they grew up alongside technology
11:53
Speaker 1: and I saw A really interesting meme that kind of
11:57
Speaker 1: struck home with me is that someone was a computer
12:01
Speaker 1: trainer at their job and said that the younger kids
12:06
Speaker 1: these days, the gen z says, teaching them like desktop
12:10
Speaker 1: computer skills is like teaching the boomers desktop computer skills
12:14
Speaker 1: because they didn't grow up with desktop computers. They mostly
12:17
Speaker 1: had tablets and touch screens. So he says, yeah, this
12:20
Speaker 1: newer generation doesn't know how to use a.
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Speaker 2: Computer has its own Yeah, every one of our students.
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Speaker 2: And I have seen this where a lot of schools
12:29
Speaker 2: will give their let's just say, like middle high school,
12:32
Speaker 2: like a laptop or a chromebook. I didn't have a
12:34
Speaker 2: laptop to I was in college, so like they've grown
12:37
Speaker 2: up with that now too, So I think that causes
12:39
Speaker 2: its own differences too, Like a laptop is definitely different,
12:43
Speaker 2: it's just kind of the use of it. And yeah,
12:45
Speaker 2: that's interesting. I didn't know that. I never heard that.
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Speaker 2: Characteristics of our gen z ers they have like a
12:51
Speaker 2: global perspective. They seem to be pretty in the know
12:54
Speaker 2: about things, or at least have an idea that things
12:56
Speaker 2: are going on in the world. Tech immersed and then
13:00
Speaker 2: this idea of like being diverse and inclusive, I will say,
13:03
Speaker 2: I mean working with teens. I don't know if you
13:05
Speaker 2: would agree justin but like they seem to be pretty
13:08
Speaker 2: inclusive and more open minded. Maybe not the ones that
13:12
Speaker 2: we've lost to like some of this red pill super
13:14
Speaker 2: right wing content, but they seem to be pretty diverse
13:18
Speaker 2: and inclusive from everything I've seen.
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Speaker 1: An important consideration to all of this is just looking
13:24
Speaker 1: at each generation and a piece of privilege that they hold,
13:29
Speaker 1: and especially for Jen Alpha, their privileges freedom from responsibilities
13:35
Speaker 1: in a lot of sense, and care and guidance from adults.
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Speaker 1: Generation Alpha is probably the most looked after generation. Like
13:46
Speaker 1: my son is too. He is Generation Alpha, and I
13:49
Speaker 1: don't think there is really ever a time and you know,
13:52
Speaker 1: he's still a toddler that people aren't watching him like
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Speaker 1: he is constantly unless he's sleeping, their eyes on him
14:00
Speaker 1: at all times. And I think that's how most kids
14:03
Speaker 1: in that generation have been raised.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not currently a latch key kid.
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Speaker 1: He is not a latch and you know, now that
14:10
Speaker 1: I think of it, even while he's sleeping, we have
14:13
Speaker 1: a monitor so that we can keep eyes on him
14:15
Speaker 1: at all times. Like, yeah, that's just these kids are
14:18
Speaker 1: growing up with constantly being supervised and watched.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, for gen Z, there's this increase in autonomy, things
14:27
Speaker 2: like starting to drive to work at your first job.
14:30
Speaker 2: They kind of have a more active role in family decisions,
14:34
Speaker 2: whether or not it's they agree with the decision or
14:36
Speaker 2: they want to participate in it and giving out like
14:39
Speaker 2: the stereotype of an angsty team, but they tend to
14:42
Speaker 2: be more involved with those kinds of things. They have
14:45
Speaker 2: more opportunities for exploration. You think of starting to shift
14:48
Speaker 2: towards getting to college age, starting to shift to you know,
14:52
Speaker 2: being in high school, getting to choose things that you
14:54
Speaker 2: want to do extracurriculars. There's an increase in legal protections.
14:57
Speaker 2: It does depend on your state, but things like confidence
15:00
Speaker 2: reality you can make your own medical decisions varies kind
15:03
Speaker 2: of the ones you hit that teenage years, depending on
15:05
Speaker 2: the state. You get some You definitely get some responsibility.
15:09
Speaker 2: They have knowledge of technology, and then they start to
15:12
Speaker 2: shift to kind of this flexibility to relocate as they
15:15
Speaker 2: get older with the possibility of something like college or
15:18
Speaker 2: traveling and doing things like that.
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Speaker 1: Millennials, they tend to have more freedom to make independent
15:25
Speaker 1: life choices. We're getting to the age now where millennials
15:28
Speaker 1: are grown up, even though I think a lot of
15:30
Speaker 1: millennials still see themselves as young. People still see themselves
15:33
Speaker 1: as kind of kids.
15:35
Speaker 2: I know I.
15:36
Speaker 1: Struggle with that too, where I'm like, I'm still a kid.
15:38
Speaker 1: I'm like, but I have a child.
15:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:42
Speaker 1: They also have a higher energy available for career and
15:46
Speaker 1: personal goals. So this is the time of our life
15:48
Speaker 1: where a lot of people are really hustling, trying to
15:50
Speaker 1: make a name for themselves, trying to make enough money,
15:52
Speaker 1: trying to afford a house. And Plus, millennials have somewhat
15:55
Speaker 1: of an advantage because they do have this pretty solid
15:58
Speaker 1: knowledge of technology.
16:00
Speaker 2: For Gen X, things like greater career and financial stability
16:03
Speaker 2: seems to be there. Generally, they have authority and influences
16:09
Speaker 2: in spaces that they are part of because of their
16:11
Speaker 2: age and experience, and I think of something specifically like work.
16:15
Speaker 2: And then they have access to the connections built over time. Naturally,
16:18
Speaker 2: as you get older, you meet more people, you've built connections.
16:21
Speaker 2: That's just it seems like a pretty natural thing that
16:23
Speaker 2: happens as you get older.
16:25
Speaker 1: And then my favorite baby boomers, they're getting more freedom
16:28
Speaker 1: from full time work. Although it seems like a lot
16:31
Speaker 1: more boomers are having to work later into life because
16:35
Speaker 1: of financial issues, and unfortunately for them, the economy seems
16:40
Speaker 1: to be tanking, and I know a lot of older
16:42
Speaker 1: people are really worried about that. Baby boomers tend to
16:45
Speaker 1: have more access to specialized programs and potential access to
16:49
Speaker 1: build on wealth. Like wealth builds wealth. They have the
16:53
Speaker 1: money to invest and increase their money, which a lot
16:56
Speaker 1: of younger generations are worried that they're going to be
16:58
Speaker 1: not be in the same place bloomers are.
17:01
Speaker 2: Wait, why is the economy thinking it?
17:04
Speaker 1: No particular.
17:07
Speaker 2: Damn man. But all right, okay, so generations and mental health. Okay,
17:23
Speaker 2: we've talked about a lot of stuff. We've given you
17:25
Speaker 2: some some base knowledge, some generalizations. Oh I didn't say
17:29
Speaker 2: that earlier. I wanted to say it, but I don't
17:30
Speaker 2: take the opportunity to say now. These are generalizations. These
17:34
Speaker 2: are not the end all be all. This does not
17:37
Speaker 2: categorize characterize every single generation. There is differences, one hundred
17:43
Speaker 2: percent differences based off of you know, how people grew up,
17:48
Speaker 2: based off of experiences they've had. Just because some of
17:51
Speaker 2: the things we're about to say may seem more on
17:53
Speaker 2: the negative side does not mean that it's it fits
17:56
Speaker 2: everybody and does not mean that people don't have the
17:58
Speaker 2: opportunity to change or to learn. So just want to
18:01
Speaker 2: throw that out there. These are generalizations, but you know,
18:06
Speaker 2: there's some validity in it for sure, Like in doing
18:08
Speaker 2: research and reading up on stuff for this episode of
18:11
Speaker 2: my class, there's definitely some validity. So anyway, so looking
18:15
Speaker 2: at the generations and mental health, so because of the
18:18
Speaker 2: characteristics that we mentioned earlier and other things, each generation
18:22
Speaker 2: appears to have a different view on mental health, and
18:24
Speaker 2: it makes sense. The experiences you had growing up definitely
18:27
Speaker 2: shape your worldview. Part of your worldview, even if it's
18:31
Speaker 2: a small part, is how you view mental health. So again,
18:35
Speaker 2: these are generalizations, but just things to keep in mind. Overall,
18:39
Speaker 2: older generations like baby Boomers and Gen X, they do
18:43
Speaker 2: tend to have a view on mental health that having
18:46
Speaker 2: these struggles is a sign of weakness, and sometimes they
18:49
Speaker 2: struggle to understand how someone can even have mental health struggles.
18:54
Speaker 2: I think of my students, my teens have had over
18:56
Speaker 2: the years of like, oh, well, they have everything they need,
18:59
Speaker 2: what are like how are they having a hard time?
19:03
Speaker 2: That makes no sense to me, you know, And so
19:06
Speaker 2: I think because of that, it creates some maybe some animosity,
19:10
Speaker 2: some headbutting across the different generations when it comes to
19:14
Speaker 2: parents and their kids. But that's kind of what we
19:16
Speaker 2: see when it comes to baby boomers and Gen X, Right.
19:19
Speaker 2: They they're this generation that's grown up. They're hard working,
19:22
Speaker 2: they've done things for themselves, they take care of themselves,
19:25
Speaker 2: they're very resourceful. So why would anyone have a hard time.
19:28
Speaker 2: You can just get yourself out of it, right, You
19:30
Speaker 2: work harder and you'll be okay. So that's that's kind
19:33
Speaker 2: of what we've seen in our work.
19:35
Speaker 1: I noticed that some of my patients who are being
19:38
Speaker 1: raised by boomers, and usually it's like a grandparent raising,
19:41
Speaker 1: they'll make statements kind of like what you had mentioned
19:44
Speaker 1: where it's like they got a roof over their head,
19:46
Speaker 1: they got food on the table, Like what do they
19:48
Speaker 1: have to be depressed about? And it's like a lot.
19:51
Speaker 1: Lot's a lot that can be depressed about. And you know,
19:56
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things, like yeah, it's wonderful
19:59
Speaker 1: that you have a roof over your head and food
20:01
Speaker 1: on your table, but that doesn't mean that genetically you're
20:03
Speaker 1: not predispositioned to be depressed or have things like schizophrenia
20:08
Speaker 1: or bipolar disorder. Like, it's not always so cut and dry,
20:12
Speaker 1: like just because you have these amenities doesn't mean that
20:15
Speaker 1: you can avoid mental health complications altogether. M But I mean,
20:19
Speaker 1: they did grow up in a time where it was
20:22
Speaker 1: that pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality, and I
20:25
Speaker 1: do think that it is changing. This is kind of
20:28
Speaker 1: the mindset that boomers had when they were younger. But
20:32
Speaker 1: I think a lot of boomers are starting to listen
20:35
Speaker 1: to younger generations be flexible and plastic in their thinking
20:39
Speaker 1: so that they can actually adjust it. So I don't
20:42
Speaker 1: think they're all like that still, but that seems like
20:45
Speaker 1: it was the definite prevailing thought.
20:48
Speaker 2: Given what we've talked about already and even just your
20:50
Speaker 2: experience and your work. Do you feel like you can
20:53
Speaker 2: understand where that view comes from? For Gen X baby boomers,
20:57
Speaker 2: this like just pull yourself by, pull yourself up by bootstraps,
21:00
Speaker 2: or work hard and you can get through it. Does
21:02
Speaker 2: that make sense to you in a way?
21:05
Speaker 1: Yes, Yeah, Because I think the brain goes to whatever
21:10
Speaker 1: answer is going to be the easiest and the answer
21:13
Speaker 1: that's going to not make you think too much.
21:15
Speaker 2: So if you just.
21:16
Speaker 1: Say, oh, they just need to work harder. Oh, there's
21:21
Speaker 1: not really a big issue, it's just kind of their fault.
21:24
Speaker 1: Then you do not actually have to fix the problem,
21:26
Speaker 1: You don't actually have to think about what the solutions are,
21:29
Speaker 1: what's causing it. You can just kind of write it
21:31
Speaker 1: off and keep going. So I think it was just
21:34
Speaker 1: easier for that generation. And I think they were really
21:37
Speaker 1: very focused on working, like they were the generation especially,
21:41
Speaker 1: I've seen it in my parents too. They were under
21:44
Speaker 1: the belief that you worked, you worked to the bone,
21:47
Speaker 1: like you worked hard and sacrificed yourself for your work.
21:51
Speaker 1: And that's changing in the younger generations, which I think
21:54
Speaker 1: is a good and healthy thing. But it seems like
21:57
Speaker 1: for the boomer generation, anything that god in the way
22:00
Speaker 1: of work was bad. It needed to be ignored and
22:04
Speaker 1: you needed to just focus on work and keep pushing.
22:07
Speaker 2: It's like the idea of like, worked in the same
22:09
Speaker 2: company for forty seven years, never took a sick day
22:12
Speaker 2: and got oh yeah days left over.
22:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's usually a point of pride for boomers, right, Yeah,
22:17
Speaker 1: I never took a sick day, never missed a day,
22:20
Speaker 1: where you know, it was very loyal and.
22:22
Speaker 2: I mean time off is one I don't know.
22:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's healthy.
22:26
Speaker 2: Balance is good, Yes, yeah, balance is good.
22:30
Speaker 1: I'm glad these things have changed, but that's what are
22:35
Speaker 1: our older generations, our boomers did have growing up.
22:40
Speaker 2: Another point to maybe highlight or emphasize, like that perspective,
22:45
Speaker 2: worked hard, did all these things, never took a day off,
22:48
Speaker 2: and look at what we ended up with. It's like, yeah,
22:51
Speaker 2: that's a positive thing. You got a house to carry,
22:53
Speaker 2: your kids, your family, all these things like those are
22:56
Speaker 2: things to be very prideful about and to be very
22:58
Speaker 2: proud of. And it's an opportunity to reflect and know
23:03
Speaker 2: that if that's the end goal, there's not just one
23:05
Speaker 2: way to get there. You don't have to beat yourself
23:09
Speaker 2: up over a job for this many years, and you
23:11
Speaker 2: don't have to stick things out. Sometimes sometimes you can
23:14
Speaker 2: get up and leave try something different. So anyway, I
23:17
Speaker 2: guess yes, the answer I think both of us can
23:20
Speaker 2: come through is it makes sense this perspective. Yeah.
23:24
Speaker 1: One thing my dad's kind of talked about in the past,
23:27
Speaker 1: which I think was a really excellent point, was that
23:29
Speaker 1: the boomers were the hippie generation in the sixties, and
23:33
Speaker 1: at the time everyone thought that they were going to
23:35
Speaker 1: change everything, they were going to stop being so corporately minded,
23:39
Speaker 1: they were going to stop being so money focused, and
23:41
Speaker 1: then they ended up becoming the exact same thing that
23:44
Speaker 1: they were rebelling against, which is fascinating to me that
23:47
Speaker 1: it was kind of hypocrisy, like they were supposed to
23:50
Speaker 1: change everything and then ended up becoming what they hated.
23:53
Speaker 1: I think that's interesting that the allure of the money
23:56
Speaker 1: just was too much.
23:58
Speaker 2: At some point, the the bell bottom jeans and the
24:02
Speaker 2: peace signed necklace had to get traded in for the
24:06
Speaker 2: suit and time.
24:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, it's the the you know, I've
24:11
Speaker 1: just heard that so many times age old phrase.
24:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, the doobie had to run out of flame. At
24:17
Speaker 2: some point. We're gonna have more of these. We'll keep
24:22
Speaker 2: thinking of.
24:25
Speaker 1: The Volks ran out of gas.
24:27
Speaker 2: God damn it, they made it electric. Okay, So uh
24:33
Speaker 2: all right, let's let's we gotta talk about the younger
24:36
Speaker 2: people too a little bit. We look at the younger generations, right,
24:39
Speaker 2: we got millennials, we got gm zuh. There seem to
24:42
Speaker 2: be some factors that contribute to their overall generational openness
24:46
Speaker 2: to mental health, right, mental health literacy. I think is
24:49
Speaker 2: a huge one. People just have a better understanding of
24:53
Speaker 2: mental health. They are exposed to it more, they've learned,
24:56
Speaker 2: they've been more curious about it. I think when you
24:59
Speaker 2: have a generation that's older, that's all about working hard,
25:02
Speaker 2: not letting things get in the way. We're not taking
25:04
Speaker 2: the time to maybe stop and think of like why
25:07
Speaker 2: am I struggling with this? Or why am I sad?
25:09
Speaker 2: Or why am I feeling this way? So I think
25:11
Speaker 2: these younger generations are more open to finding out those answers.
25:15
Speaker 2: There's definitely less in stigma, there's more normalization about it,
25:19
Speaker 2: and then the increase access to information about mental health.
25:22
Speaker 2: I will say if I had a nickel for every
25:25
Speaker 2: time I had a teen that was like fascinated by
25:28
Speaker 2: the DSM five that I had on my desk, I'd
25:31
Speaker 2: have about a dollar. And that's in like the almost
25:35
Speaker 2: eight years of working. That's pretty good. So I don't know,
25:38
Speaker 2: that's just it's anecdotal, but there's there's definitely some there's
25:43
Speaker 2: interest in it, and maybe in more of a way
25:45
Speaker 2: than before than ever before.
25:48
Speaker 1: I think a big piece of that too, is a
25:51
Speaker 1: piece of that openness is the fact that social media
25:55
Speaker 1: has given people a way to hear perspectives that they
25:59
Speaker 1: otherwise wouldn't have heard, especially as someone who grew up
26:03
Speaker 1: in Wyoming where it's mostly just white people. Being able
26:08
Speaker 1: to see other people's perspective from around the world on
26:12
Speaker 1: social media that was such a new thing. It's crazy
26:16
Speaker 1: that it's gone from learning other people's point of views
26:19
Speaker 1: to just being indoctrinated and do extremism. But you know,
26:23
Speaker 1: at the beginning, it was a really wonderful thing and
26:27
Speaker 1: it really did help people understand other people's perspectives.
26:30
Speaker 2: There was, for sure, and even probably still now, but
26:33
Speaker 2: there's definitely like an emphasis on just being real and
26:36
Speaker 2: like learning like realness like really seem to do well
26:40
Speaker 2: on social media for long, and it probably still does,
26:43
Speaker 2: but there's definitely it's definitely shifted over the last four
26:46
Speaker 2: or five years if you think of something like TikTok
26:48
Speaker 2: and Instagram. But one thing that I will say that
26:51
Speaker 2: I think kind of maybe plagues the younger generations when
26:55
Speaker 2: it comes to mental health struggles is this idea of
26:58
Speaker 2: if everybody has mental health, if everybody is depressed, if
27:01
Speaker 2: everyone is anxious, if everyone has autism, does anyone really
27:05
Speaker 2: have mental health concerns depression, anxiety, autism, And I think
27:09
Speaker 2: it's a fair question. I think I think there's definitely
27:12
Speaker 2: we had a really good discussion on this in my class.
27:15
Speaker 2: I think someone it was part of like this lecture,
27:18
Speaker 2: but also someone had brought in like an article about
27:20
Speaker 2: TikTok specifically and self diagnosis. There is probably this idea
27:26
Speaker 2: of like we may be diagnosing things more frequently, or
27:29
Speaker 2: we probably are diagnosed it. We are diagnosing things more frequently.
27:33
Speaker 2: What is the reason for that? Are we overdiagnosing our
27:35
Speaker 2: people self diagnosing too much? Are we just better at
27:37
Speaker 2: finding it? I don't know, but I think I feel
27:40
Speaker 2: like it's a fair question, like if everyone has it,
27:43
Speaker 2: does anyone really have it?
27:45
Speaker 1: Well, we're starting to understand more and more about mental
27:47
Speaker 1: health issues. Is that a lot of times it's a spectrum,
27:50
Speaker 1: Like you might only be like a little tiny bit depressed,
27:53
Speaker 1: but that's still you go through times of feeling depressed
27:56
Speaker 1: and that's normal. But when it gets to being in
27:59
Speaker 1: the way of your life, that's when we start to
28:00
Speaker 1: pathologize it and say like, Okay, maybe you need some
28:03
Speaker 1: help for that for depression.
28:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I feel like I don't know if you've
28:07
Speaker 2: heard anything of this, and you know, we haven't had
28:09
Speaker 2: a new DSM and I'm not even going to count
28:11
Speaker 2: the text redvice, but we haven't had a new DSM
28:13
Speaker 2: since twenty thirteen. But I feel like for a while
28:17
Speaker 2: people have been saying like, oh, the next one is
28:19
Speaker 2: going to be more of like things will be on
28:22
Speaker 2: a spectrum. I don't know if you've heard that, but
28:23
Speaker 2: I think like that might be the direction we're going
28:26
Speaker 2: in of like, yes, maybe more people were diagnosed, but
28:30
Speaker 2: it's because we have this more spectrum that maybe better
28:32
Speaker 2: fits the acuity and intensity of like symptoms and what
28:36
Speaker 2: people are dealing with.
28:37
Speaker 1: I think you made a really good point earlier that
28:40
Speaker 1: I saw that quite a bit in clinical practice, especially
28:44
Speaker 1: over COVID of especially with all the social media influencers
28:48
Speaker 1: and everything, a lot of kids were coming in saying
28:51
Speaker 1: like I have autism, I have dissociative personality disorder, I
28:57
Speaker 1: have X, Y and Z. You diagnose me and treat
29:00
Speaker 1: and it's like, whoa where did you hear about this?
29:02
Speaker 1: And nine times out of ten it was, oh, there
29:04
Speaker 1: was an influencer there. I heard it on TikTok, which
29:08
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure there are some people that really
29:10
Speaker 1: legitimately had those things, and TikTok taught them about it
29:14
Speaker 1: and got them to understand it a little bit better.
29:17
Speaker 1: But it's kind of a double edged sword there, because
29:19
Speaker 1: it seemed like I remember watching a lot of ADHD
29:22
Speaker 1: videos where they were talking about stuff like oh, if
29:24
Speaker 1: you do this, you have ADHD. Yeah, it's like, that's
29:28
Speaker 1: not a diagnostic criteria, that's not a symptom. That's just
29:31
Speaker 1: this one random person. So there's just a lot of
29:35
Speaker 1: bad information out there on social media.
29:38
Speaker 2: If you sleep with your hand under your chin, you
29:41
Speaker 2: have autism? What the fuck? What?
29:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, just weird stuff like that, Right, it could apply
29:50
Speaker 1: to anyone, but it doesn't really apply to every It
29:53
Speaker 1: was just yeah, silly.
29:54
Speaker 2: And that you know, that might have been a sign
29:55
Speaker 2: when that kind of content was starting to take off
29:57
Speaker 2: of like oh well, this is what's like really good
29:59
Speaker 2: in the views of these like fake diagnostic criteria where
30:02
Speaker 2: people are like searching out Like when you couple it
30:05
Speaker 2: with generations that are more curious about mental health and
30:09
Speaker 2: are seeking information, and then instead of turning to books
30:13
Speaker 2: and texts and stuff which are born to read, you
30:16
Speaker 2: turn to short form videos because it's easier to get
30:18
Speaker 2: information that way sometimes and then you're so you're looking
30:22
Speaker 2: for the information and then you find it. Look ten
30:24
Speaker 2: signs you have autism? Hell yeah, I sleep with my
30:26
Speaker 2: hand under my chin autism. Yeah, it's tricky. So that's
30:33
Speaker 2: kind of the main pieces we want to share today.
30:35
Speaker 2: But some things some to discuss and then kind of
30:38
Speaker 2: go over justin in your practice. Like what I know,
30:43
Speaker 2: we both of us primarily focused with teens, but because
30:46
Speaker 2: of that we also get exposed to their parents and
30:48
Speaker 2: even their grandparents are caregivers and those are usually of
30:51
Speaker 2: a different generation. But what generational differences have you noticed
30:56
Speaker 2: regarding mental health in your own practice?
30:59
Speaker 1: The most odd one is just the technology that kids
31:03
Speaker 1: these days don't socialize in person very much anymore. Most
31:08
Speaker 1: of their social life is on the phone, on the xbox,
31:12
Speaker 1: on the computer, So most of their free time is
31:15
Speaker 1: spent isolating to their room. And every single day I've
31:19
Speaker 1: got families coming in saying like, I can't get my
31:22
Speaker 1: kid out of the room. They're in there for eight
31:24
Speaker 1: hours a day on their devices and tuning out the world.
31:29
Speaker 1: Families don't really seem to spend that much time together.
31:31
Speaker 1: Like family used to go on walks together, They used
31:35
Speaker 1: to go out together and do fun things. I have
31:37
Speaker 1: so many families that just tell me, like, I've got
31:39
Speaker 1: nothing in common with my parents. They don't foster any
31:43
Speaker 1: of these interests with them, so they're like, like, I
31:46
Speaker 1: I'll ask families all the time, what do you do
31:47
Speaker 1: for fun together? And they have absolutely nothing because they
31:52
Speaker 1: have such widely different lives. And the funny thing is
31:56
Speaker 1: is now the parents are also addicted to their screens
32:00
Speaker 1: in separate rooms, on their phones, doing completely opposite things,
32:04
Speaker 1: and it just feels like like this younger generation is
32:07
Speaker 1: so disconnected. And I tell my young people all the
32:11
Speaker 1: time that the studies are showing that this seems to
32:15
Speaker 1: be the most lonely generation in history, and it's because
32:19
Speaker 1: they're not having those face to face interactions with their peers.
32:22
Speaker 1: They're choosing to have those interactions on their phones, and
32:26
Speaker 1: those tend to make you more lonely in the long run.
32:29
Speaker 1: Is having those online relationships.
32:32
Speaker 2: If I were to mention something different, probably just the
32:35
Speaker 2: the headbutting of like between generations when it comes to
32:39
Speaker 2: parents and their kids, caregivers and their kids, you know,
32:42
Speaker 2: foster parents and their kids, whatever it is, whatever adult
32:45
Speaker 2: they have in their life just the differences and you hear, oh,
32:50
Speaker 2: you know kids these days and things like that I
32:52
Speaker 2: think are something that I see a lot, And it's
32:54
Speaker 2: not it's not to shit on any generation. It's just
32:58
Speaker 2: trends that we notice.
32:59
Speaker 1: So how do is this information about differences in generations?
33:04
Speaker 1: How does it affect our work?
33:06
Speaker 2: Like?
33:06
Speaker 1: Does is it useful information for us? What do you think?
33:09
Speaker 2: I mean? Shit? I hope so. Because we just talked
33:11
Speaker 2: about it for like thirty.
33:11
Speaker 1: Minutes, we wouldn't be doing the episode otherwise.
33:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I've been talking about class a lot
33:18
Speaker 2: about this again, teaching cultural foundations, Like base information is
33:24
Speaker 2: really good to have. General information is really good to have.
33:28
Speaker 2: Is it going to guide every single interaction we have
33:30
Speaker 2: with a client? Maybe it'll have some kind of impact.
33:33
Speaker 2: Is it going to answer every single question we have
33:36
Speaker 2: about a client? Fuck? No, right, Because people are so
33:38
Speaker 2: different from each other, we have to look at the individual.
33:41
Speaker 2: But I think having the general knowledge is really important
33:43
Speaker 2: because we can at least have this idea of like, Okay,
33:46
Speaker 2: these kids probably have an understanding of technology and social media. You,
33:51
Speaker 2: so if they do, I can probably talk about social
33:53
Speaker 2: media pretty openly and pretty directly because they know exactly
33:57
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about. So I think it helps the
33:59
Speaker 2: word work. I think it helps us to just kind
34:01
Speaker 2: of be knowledgeable about who we're working with and what
34:04
Speaker 2: kind of experiences they may have or have had, or
34:07
Speaker 2: are going to have. It's just I think it's good
34:09
Speaker 2: to have the info.
34:10
Speaker 1: You know, what I've very much learned in my career
34:13
Speaker 1: is that people's parents aren't always the one raising the child.
34:19
Speaker 1: There's a lot of non traditional families out there. There's
34:21
Speaker 1: a lot of grandparents raising their grandkids. There's a lot
34:25
Speaker 1: of foster care stuff. There's a lot of interesting intergenerational play,
34:31
Speaker 1: and you never know what generation is going to get
34:33
Speaker 1: matched up with another generation and how they're going to mesh.
34:37
Speaker 1: So it's interesting to see that in my job, and
34:40
Speaker 1: the similarities in certain conflicts, like when there's you know,
34:43
Speaker 1: boomer grandparents raising their kids kind of the same trends
34:46
Speaker 1: that keep popping up in those families is interesting to me.
34:50
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's useful to know. You know, the more
34:52
Speaker 1: information and the more we understand other people and our patients,
34:57
Speaker 1: the better.
34:58
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen any times or like a parent
35:01
Speaker 2: caregiver whoever's in charge is kind of flip their stance
35:04
Speaker 2: on something during the time you work with, maybe stop
35:08
Speaker 2: saying that their kid is soft or that they just
35:11
Speaker 2: got to kind of figure it out or deal with it.
35:13
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen anything like that?
35:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think absolutely. People. It feels like in today's world,
35:23
Speaker 1: we're taught to think that people can't change their minds
35:27
Speaker 1: because what we get is all people who are so
35:31
Speaker 1: very polarized. And yes, there are people who are very
35:35
Speaker 1: stuck in their ways that I've noticed, especially people with
35:37
Speaker 1: mental health problems, tend to be very inflexible, very rigid.
35:41
Speaker 1: But parents care about their kids and if it means
35:47
Speaker 1: helping their child by changing their ideas, most parents would
35:52
Speaker 1: change their mind to help their child, is what I've
35:54
Speaker 1: noticed to which is promising considering there is a lot
35:58
Speaker 1: of conversation about the intergenerational fighting and butting heads, but
36:02
Speaker 1: deep down, I think people are willing to change for
36:05
Speaker 1: the best thing for their child.
36:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was gonna say, my example is just going
36:09
Speaker 2: to be like I've definitely seen. Unfortunately, when something pretty
36:13
Speaker 2: severe happens to the child to the teen, parents tend
36:17
Speaker 2: to like, oh shit, okay, like I get it now,
36:21
Speaker 2: so which you wish it wouldn't have to get to
36:24
Speaker 2: there in the first place. But if everything ends up
36:26
Speaker 2: okay and everyone's safe, then kind of is what it is.
36:29
Speaker 1: Take home points. Generations are different, yes, and it's not
36:36
Speaker 1: all good, it's not all bad, but it's worth it
36:39
Speaker 1: to try and understand where other generations are coming from,
36:42
Speaker 1: you know. That's that's one of the things I like
36:44
Speaker 1: about mental health. Like growing up, I always just wanted
36:48
Speaker 1: to understand why people are the way they are, and
36:53
Speaker 1: understanding what generation people come from helps you understand why
36:57
Speaker 1: they make the decisions that they do, who they are
37:00
Speaker 1: exactly why they are who they are. So I think
37:03
Speaker 1: it's it's fun. I appreciate you bringing up this topic
37:07
Speaker 1: so that we can talk about this learn about from
37:10
Speaker 1: each other. So love your boomers.
37:14
Speaker 2: I think that's fair. I think by deck home point is, yeah,
37:18
Speaker 2: just the when we can start to see the intersection
37:21
Speaker 2: of like each generation's social, cultural, political, technological things that
37:28
Speaker 2: have impacted who they are today, we can kind of
37:30
Speaker 2: start to understand like why, you know we see some
37:33
Speaker 2: of these generalizations. So yeah, I think it's important.
37:36
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37:41
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38:02
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38:04
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38:16
Speaker 2: millenniaimac dot com. And with that, we'll see you in
38:20
Speaker 2: our next episode. And remember take care of your mentals.