Generational Stress and the Ability to Bounce Back

There isn’t a single one of us who hasn’t had a talk with a pre-baby-boomer [senior] who enjoyed reminding us that their generation was built to last longer than ours.

They would insist, “We never suffered from depression and stress!” We just accepted it, swallowed it up, and kept going. No one ever had the time for “nothing else! You youngsters nowadays aren’t as tough as we were!

Remember that? The key question is, then, are they correct?

Stress and despair seemed to be much rarer “back in the day” than they are today. Why? Is it because people of that age worked so hard to hide their emotions? Was it taboo in the same way that divorce is today? … Maybe.

Did they grow up with less pressure than we do today? Many people now believe that our generation is the most stressed in history, yet you’d have a hard time telling a veteran of World War I or World War II that they haven’t experienced stress in all its nasty forms. Obviously, they do. However, there are significant distinctions between their approach and ours.

For instance, modern research has proven that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is physiologically real and psychologically crippling. They diagnosed it as “shell shock” back in the day. LMF, which stands for “Lack of Moral Fiber,” was another name for it.

It is not my place to judge which generation has the better perspective; all I can do is point out the disparities.

Pre-Boomers often argue that today’s generation takes their good fortune for granted.

An Older Person: “Back in my day, we didn’t have much money, so we just made do. We had fun on our own and were not bored.

It’s unclear if they were content or not. The reality is that they were considerably less well off than we are. Thus, I think this is where we can examine this fundamental difference and see if it might be true and how something as basic as money might be to blame for the moral decline of today’s youth and its effect on the resilience factor.

Personal wealth rose faster in the 1980s than in any other decade in human history.

‘Choice’ emerged alongside affluence and personal discretionary income. Boomers, in contrast to prior generations, were suddenly able to afford a wide range of options, and they made full use of this freedom. The newly wealthy could afford luxurious items like boats, vehicles, mansions, and lifestyles.

Because of the availability of new options, norms and routines could potentially shift. Gen Xers and Millennials didn’t have to “make do” or “find cheap ways to entertain themselves” like their parents’ generation did. They were financially secure enough to pursue their passions without worrying about the consequences.

If things got too difficult, boomers might simply walk away. Jobs, careers, and higher learning were all part of that. The preference for ease over challenge or discomfort is indicative of the generational shift that occurred between the Baby Boomers and the preceding generation. ‘Suck it up and soldier on’ was no longer unnecessary. That problem has been solved by cold, hard cash.

Even though the 1990s helped level the playing field, the generational mood had already been set. The mentality of corporations also shifted. Once-automatic commitment to staff members evaporated. If something wasn’t working the way the firm wanted, then it had to be changed, no matter how many people it would negatively impact. One should only show loyalty to oneself.

As my father always told me, “There is a price to be paid for everything, my son.” As a youngster, my father drilled it into my head. The adage “the scales always balance”

The balance of power appears to be shifting. Stress-related illnesses and employee absenteeism cost American businesses $12 billion in 1999, according to statistics compiled by Statistics Canada. In September 2004, the New York Times stated that this issue cost the United States $300 billion annually, while in 2005, the United Kingdom estimated that it cost over 12 billion pounds. The veracity of these allegations is debatable, but there’s no denying that whatever the actual number is, it’s massive.

Why this is happening, though, is the more pressing query. Many members of this generation seem ill-equipped to handle pressure, and it’s a mystery why that is.

We are, without a doubt, the most pressured generation in history. It’s harder than ever to make ends meet without at least one parent working outside the home due to rising costs associated with things like childcare, housing, transportation, food, clothing, health care, education, and entertainment.

Today’s youth aren’t equipped with the “resilience factor.” After only 25 years, a generation devoid of grit and moral fiber has been produced by a society that prioritizes the pursuit of pleasure. The simple fact is that there has never been a period in human history free of stress. Learning coping mechanisms is something that must be done forever. For some, education comes more easily than for others. However, most of us rely on others to teach it to us, typically our parents. However, education is necessary.

Could it be that teachers have been too consumed with the unprecedented rise of single-parent households and two-income families to provide adequate attention to the next generation? Absolutely! But the issue persists in this generation as a whole. Have we, in the past 25 years, lost our capacity for resilience? Actually, we have learned a lot about how not to be resilient, so the answer is yes. I’ll try to explain.

Behavior, whether positive or negative, is said to be learned through repetition by trained psychologists. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never surrender!” was drilled into the heads of the previous generation. That generation took it to heart, made it a part of their daily lives, and became more resilient as a result.

When the next generation grew up with more disposable income and more options for how to spend it, resilience training fell off the radar. We are defenseless because we lack the resilience factor, which is exacerbated by the tremendous daily stress and responsibility as well as the more uncertain and competitive times.

The norm for this age is to publicly express negative emotions such as anger and sadness. I don’t disagree with the reasoning, but I do think it’s important to teach people limits, including how to identify, assess, and recover from their bad feelings. That’s the other part of the lesson, though, and it’s crucial. My father’s advice was, “Control your downs and your ups!” Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from adversity. The development of self-discipline and appropriate limits is crucial.

The good news is that the same psychologists also teach us that it’s never too late to alter one’s behavior.

Breathing exercises can be used to lower blood pressure and alleviate tension. Behavioral triggers are powerful tools for instantly replacing destructive thought patterns and behaviors. A combination of music, Power Talk, and other stress-reduction strategies can help us live more harmoniously and with less tension. The even more excellent news is that these methods are easily teachable to anyone and do work!

The current generation and the next have a lot to learn from the generations before them. What they did unconsciously can serve as a blueprint for us to employ consciously to fortify ourselves against the challenges of today’s more competitive and demanding workplaces and healthcare systems. Our resilience factor determines the extent to which we can maintain our health and pleasure.