The Daily Signal - What's Driving Gen Z’s Poor Mental Health? Psychologist Explains

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

No generation struggles with mental health more than Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012.  Only 41% of Gen Z respondents said they're "thriving" in a Gallup and Walton Family Foundation poll released earlier this year and reported by CNN, but 60% of millennials surveyed said they were thriving when asked at the same age. When questioned about their mental health and well-being, only 20 in every 100 Gen Zers say it is excellent.  Clinical psychologist Chloe Carmichael says Gen Zers' mental health issues likely stem from multiple factors, such as “false social standards that social media creates [and] the stifling of free speech." About the latter, Carmichael says that "as a clinical psychologist, I believe freedom of expression and being able to verbalize your thoughts is really good for your mental health.”  The psychologist also points to “a decline in religiosity” among the young generation as a reason for growing depression and anxiety, as well as the extended period of social distancing and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Carmichael joins this episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain the factors that led to today's mental health crisis and what can be done to address such underlying causes.  And with Christmas around the corner, Carmichael also offers some tips and tricks for how we all can navigate family and challenging relational dynamics over the holidays.   Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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No generation struggles more with mental health than Generation Z. That's those who are born between 1997 and 2012. A recent Gallup and Walton Family Foundation poll had some troubling statistics that they've discovered about Gen Z's mental health. Like that only 41% of Gen Z members ages 18 to 12. say that they're thriving, but millennials at the same age reported a 60% thriving rate. While clinical psychologist, Dr. Chloe Carmichael, joins us on today's show to explain what the factors are that are driving this mental health crisis for Generation Z. And she also, with the holidays just around the corner, offers some tips and tricks for how

we can all make sure that we are staying in a good mental state over the holidays and some practical tools for maybe how to navigate some challenging family dynamics over Christmas. Stay with us for my conversation with Dr. Chloe Carmichael after this. The Heritage Foundation is the most effective conservative policy organization in the country. Every semester, our interns are a vital part of that mission. We pay competitively. We develop talent. And we give our interns access to some of the sharpest minds in the country.

We're going on offense. So join us. To learn more about the Young Leaders program here at the Heritage Foundation, please go to heritage.org slash intern. Dr. Chloe is back with us today. We are so pleased to have her back in studio. The last time that she was on the show with us was September of 2022. So it's great to be able to talk mental health once again.

The last time Dr. Chloe, we had you on. We were talking about the importance of free service. speech for our mental health. So as we dive in today, I would love to ask you just to share a little bit of your background and how you got into the field of psychology. Sure, Virginia. It's really good to be back with you and the Heritage Foundation community as well. So as you mentioned, I'm a clinical psychologist and I have been for over a decade now. Before I was a clinical psychologist. I was a yoga teacher doing individual lessons, helping people to, you know, grow. And it was really through that work and watching the changes that people were making through,

you know, meditation and consistent practice that I wanted to learn more. And so I became a clinical psychologist over 10 years ago and started to grow my business. And I was thankful the business was growing. And I was getting some media attention and, you know, commenting in, you know, VH1 and, you know, Newsweek and that kind of thing. And it was all going fine. And then it was actually around the time of the pandemic that I kind of took a bit of a risk because, as we all know, there's only certain things that you can say in the media. And up until that point, I'd been really careful to never, you know, to do anything that could offend the media because I didn't want to jeopardize my practice. But I couldn't take it anymore when the pandemic happened and

they were masking little, little, little children. And the psychologist in me just had to break out of the box. So since then, I've been talking more about whether it be the harms of masking children or the mental health benefits of free speech and all kinds of other naughty topics when it comes to the media and psychology. Dr. Chloe, thank you so much. for sharing a little bit of your background. I want to go ahead and get into talking a little bit about one of the common issues that we're hearing a decent amount about of late, and that is mental health, specifically as it relates to Gen Zers. I think it's quite common that the older generation often worries a little bit about the younger generation,

but with Gen Z, we do have polling data that shows that Gen Z has greater mental health issues, is struggling more so with depression, with anxiety, than other older generations. So we look at some recent polling, a poll released in September from Gallup and Walton Family Foundation, found that only 41% of Gen Z, ages 18 to 26, are thriving. And according to the study, millennials at the same age, they were thriving at a rate of 60%. So that's quite about a 20% gap nearly. And when you ask Gen Z to rate their mental health, only 20 and every 100 say that it's excellent. That is the lowest out of every generation by a substantial amount.

So what exactly are the core issues that are believed to be causing mental health struggles for Generation Z? I think that there's multiple issues. So I think on one level it's actually true that Gen Z is struggling harder than previous generations. You know, whether it's because of the false social standards that social media creates, you know, the stifling of free speech, which as a clinical psychologist, I believe, you know, freedom of expression and being able to verbalize your thoughts is really good for your mental health as well as for your close relationships, which are good for mental health, being able to be authentic and say what you really think. you know, Gen Z, of course, is under a decline in religiosity, and psychology studies do show that religiosity is a protective factor. Of course, you know, during the pandemic, we, you know, kept them all literally locked and masked and socially distanced at the time when they were supposed to be growing and experimenting, you know, with a lot of different social types of

settings. So on one level, I think it's actually true that that they're supposed to be growing and experimenting, you know, suffering more than previous generations for those reasons. On the other hand, unfortunately, they're also in a time in which the victim economy and the it's okay not to be okay has almost reified disorder or, you know, having problems. So whereas previous generations would use discomfort in its healthy function, which is to stimulate change behaviors. Unfortunately, I think for Gen Z, many of them take that discomfort, that sadness, that disorder almost as a badge of honor and unfortunately almost revel in it. That is a very interesting point. I have not thought about that in that way, but you're right. I think when you pause and think about that. That's fascinating. Now, I will

say for myself, for better or worth, I tend to blame social media for a lot of things. And I think my first thought when I hear Gen C is struggling more than any other generation with mental health, my first thought goes to, oh, well, that's the fault of social media. Do you think that that's a fair statement to make? Well, I wouldn't lay the blame exclusively on social media, but I think it's a really good starting point. So especially when we consider, okay, so right now, Now it's December of 2023. It was in around March of 2020 that the pandemic hit. And again, I almost cannot overemphasize the importance of the impact of isolating those people, those young people.

It's hard on anyone to be put into isolation. I mean, even in prison going into solitary confinement is one of the worst things that you can do to a prisoner. and for young people to have been taken out of school, you know, they were doing Zoom learning, of course, but we all know that that's, you know, it's not the same cognitively and it's certainly not the same socially. So they were completely isolated, not even able to visit, frankly, with their grandmothers. You know, they were removed from social circles and socializing as well as the cognitive stimulation of school. And I almost compare it to the idea of a very, very dry sponge is going to soak up whatever water it can contact. Unfortunately, for many of those young isolated people,

TikTok was that water that they soaked up. And the problem, of course, with TikTok, as we've all seen, you know, much of social media, but I think especially TikTok, it's coming from a very warped sense of reality. I mean, it was telling that men can become women, women can become men. And if you don't agree, then you are a bigot. And, you know, heaven forbid that, you know, you are white, you know, because then you're, you know, you're an oppressor. And so they were in this vacuum without getting social and cognitive stimulation. They were desperate for something to soak in. And then many of them turned to TikTok. And as if the content on social media, in many senses is not questionable enough, even in terms of reality testing and gaslighting.

Beyond that, of course, is advertising. That's how those platforms survive. So you're either being served content that is in some way kind of messing with your head. And then between that, you get your advertisements, which, of course, advertising hinges on convincing the viewer that they have a need or a problem that needs to be fixed. So, you know, we're piping in big pharma or, you know, diet and cosmetic, a Brazilian buttlift, you know, whatever kind of nonsense is coming through on the advertising channels in between the totally maladaptive social media content. So, Virginia, I think you're on to something there to be looking at social media. I wouldn't put it exclusively at social media. Like I said, I think there's also the decline of religiosity and free speech.

and other things. But I think that was a big part of it is social media. It can be discouraging, I think, when you look at all these factors. And of course, you know, tragically, we can't undo what was done during the pandemic. But there are steps we can date to improve things. It's kind of pie in the sky thinking to think that all of Gen Z is going to get off of TikTok tomorrow. We're calling on that to happen. But we know that social media is probably not going away anytime soon. So what are some practical things that young people, but not just young people, that anyone can do to really actively be improving their mental health? Because while Gen Z does rank lowest for mental health right now, we

know from reports from the CDC that, for example, in 2021, there was a major spike in suicide among men 55 and older. So this is an issue that so many people are facing. What are the things that we can do to be improving our mental health. Yeah, so thank you for asking that question, because the good news is that there are lots of things that we can do to improve our mental health. And to your point as well about men, I actually just recently participated in a documentary

for Pregg or you to really try and debunk this idea of toxic masculinity, right, which is just another issue that I think is weighing people down that we need to get away from. And the good news is is that it's not true, right? The good news is is that men are not toxic. You know, the good news is that women really are women, even if we wear pants or whatever it is. So this is all good news. As far as what people can do, you know, one of the easiest ways to get your brain back from your phone and that social media that may be war, it is to set your phone to go to gray scale. So whether you have an Android or an iPhone, you can easily set your phone so that it will just go into black and white. And that actually makes the whole experience a lot less engaging for you, which will be very helpful. If you can't take it all day long, at the very least, you can configure your phone to do a routine where it will

go into black and white, say from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and that will help to at least rescue people from the nighttime scrolling, which, you know, interferes with their sleep and everything else. Connecting with nature is another huge way as well as socializing and exercise. The good news is that you can combine all three of those things by simply going for a walk in nature, either with a friend or being on a cell phone call with a friend. So you could say to a friend even who lives in another state, like, hey, I'm trying to get outside and do a walk. Do you want to at 4 o'clock? We'll both be doing a walk and we'll have a cell phone catch-up call at the same time. One more quick way to, you know, improve your mental health is to connect with your church, synagogue, house of worship,

because as I mentioned earlier, and it's really funny to me that the American Psychological Association doesn't ever seem to have a national religiosity month or whatever. They have all kinds of other initiatives, but they just seem to quietly ignore the research that does show that people who are connected to a religious group is a protective factor for their mental health. So, you know, don't be shy. check out your house of worship, even if it feels awkward, even if you haven't been in a while, shop around. If you go to one and it doesn't suit you, go to another one. Don't give up. I love that. I love how practical that is. And I'm going to, after our conversation here, change the setting on my phone. That's very helpful. But let's talk a little bit about the holidays, because we all know that the holidays can actually be a pretty challenging time of really fighting

maybe struggles with mental health on multiple fronts, whether you've lost someone and you're still walking through that grieving process. And of course, the holidays can really bring up the pain of that loss. Or you're just dealing with family members that can be a little bit challenging during the holidays. You recently published an excellent piece titled How to Survive. the holiday season with your family. And the first thing that you encourage people to do is to be prepared. So how exactly do we prepare ourselves going into the holidays for those potentially challenging

interactions with family? Yeah. So the beauty of it is that even though it can be part of the drag of it is that you just have this feeling like, oh, no, every year I have the same problem and it comes up year after year after year. But the good news about the fact that it's repetitive is that forewarned is forearmed. It does allow us to make a plan, right? So if you know that you're going to a holiday gathering and there's always, you know, one particular relative that, you know, makes cutting remarks or gets on your case or maybe it's even just the whole environment of just, you know, it's just overwhelming

to be, you know, at your in-laws and the house is swarming and it's just overwhelming. The good news is that when you can forecast that, you can layer in what psychologists call, a self-care plan. So, you know, maybe you want to identify an ally. So whether it be, you know, your spouse or some just other person there that, that you know you do click with, you could say, you know what, when relative X, you know, gets on my case, I'm going to do this, you know, a little thing with my ear or with my hair. And that means it's, I need you to come over and just stand by me. I need you to just come over and be with me, you know, or to be able to practice and advance some gracious boundary-setting behaviors without making the other person wrong. So just to

take the classic example, suppose the mother-in-law is going to be on your case about when are you guys having kids, right? So to be able to plan in advance to say, you know, Sue, I know you're coming from a good place with that question. It's a natural question. To be honest, we're just not really up to discuss it right now, but we know you're coming from a place of love. And then here's the key, Virginia. You have to have an advance three good pivot topics so that you don't just scold Sue like that and leave it hanging there. You say, but Sue, I would love to hear about that new garden that you're planning. Or, by the way, I know that you and dad were going to plan a cruise.

What's going on with that? Because that way, you're drawing a boundary around what you will not discuss, but you're also providing a very graceful, easy pivot topic to get onto, you know, something else. The other thing that comes up a lot for people is political disagreements around the holidays. And some people at this point just say, okay, forget it. Nobody will talk about politics. Okay, if that's, you know, the best solution for some people, that's fine. But I personally think that we actually need to have more ability to have political disagreements and political dialogue without having it become a relationship threat. So there's a really simple technique from

couples therapy called reflective listening that can be very very. helpful so whatever somebody says as far as their opinion you just simply reflect it back to them you say okay great so just to make sure I really hear you what you're saying is is that you are in favor of the such-and-such-and-such policy because X, Y, and Z or you know you're feeling about the conflict in such and such part of the world is ABC you just repeat it back to them and you say, do I have that right? And when people realize that you're actually listening, you're being respectful and you're truly trying to understand them, that can really take the edge off. And if they say, yeah, that is. That's right. Then you can say, okay, well, would you like

to hear how I feel about it? And if they say, yes, you could say, okay, great, I'll tell you, but I want you to do the same thing for me where I'll tell you and that I want you to reflect it back to me just to make sure that we are really hearing each other. And when people do that reflective listening technique, it can actually make the conversations a lot more heartfelt and productive. That does make it much more productive. I'm supposed to, I mean, essentially, to reflect back to you. It is the I'm listening not just to respond, but to actually hear your heart. And that is a beautiful thing and a powerful thing, especially with family, people that we so deeply desire to connect with and that we are going to have in our lives no matter what. So, so, so practical.

I want to encourage all of our listeners to check out your website, Dr. Chloe. It's Dr. Chloe.com. You can find Dr. Chloe's books there. Her latest book is nervous energy, harness the power of your anxiety. You can find her blog and even schedule one-on-one appointments with Dr. Chloe. So again, that website is Dr. D.R. Chloe, C-H-H-N. L-O-E dot com. But Dr. Chloe, thank you for your time today. I really appreciate you joining the show. Thanks, Virginia.

And in fact, just to make things easier for people, because I know Chloe can be a really hard name for some people to spell, I actually made a page called makeachange. dot U.S. That's makeachange. dot U.S. And it goes to all of my independent thinking blogs about the benefits of free speech and all kinds of other interesting stuff.

Love it. That's excellent. All right. Well, we will leave those links. the show notes. And Dr. Chloe, I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year. Thanks, Virginia. You as well, and to the entire heritage group, you all are amazing. Oh, thank you so much. We really appreciate you being a part of us. Thank you. And with that, that is going to do it for today's episode. Thanks for being with us here on the Daily Signal

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