Causes of Depression in the Millennial Generation Depression has possibly at one time affected or currently affects almost every living individual worldwide. Kids, teens, and young adults in the twentieth century were always identified as more susceptible to feeling depressed, typically due to nothing more than normal changes of physical and mental maturity. However, in her book Generation Me, Jean M. Twenge addresses that “being young has not always carried such a high risk of being anxious, depressed, suicidal, or medicated”. She tells that between only 1% to 2% of Americans born before 1915 felt depressed at least one time in their life; considerably less compared to today’s 15% to 20% of Americans (105). In previous generations, …show more content…

Many young adults feel that the use of drugs and alcohol is effective to self-medicate their sadness, while on the other hand it majorly exacerbates the issue (Statistics). If many Millennials are living in an environment where their peers use drugs and alcohol regularly, it’s no wonder that many are as depressed as they are. In fact the general physical health of many young people today affect their mental stability. Twenty-eight percent, nearly one-third, of Millennials take a prescribed medication regularly; 23% of those are also prescribed to anti-depressants (U.S. Millennials). Jean M. Twenge writes in Generation Me that from 1987 to 1997 the number of those being treated for depression multiplied threefold. From 3% to 5% of the teen and young adult population in America experience a spell of sever depression every year, unfortunately it is reported that less than 25% of them will receive proper treatment (Teendepression.org). If the Millennials live in an environment plagued with depression without medical and emotional treatment they have little hope of living healthy productive lives. If proof of the depression much of the young population faces can not raise awareness in the reader that action must be taken, then perhaps the death toll resulting from their infectious misery will. According to