Mental health: Perception from Gen-X & Gen- Z population

Every generation has their different perceptions of things. All the generation’s views differ from each other because of factors like culture, education, awareness, etc. Let’s look at two such generations – Gen-X and Gen-Z.

Gen-X :

Gen-X is the generation of people born between 1965 to 1980. These people are between 40-55 years of age.

Gen-Z :

 Gen-Z is the generation of people born between 1996 to 2015. These people are between 5-24 years of age.

Perception of Gen-x

 These people are in denial. They are likely to believe the following things –

They believe that they cannot have any mental illness.

They believe mental illness is a rich person’s disease because they have more money and time, common man won’t have such disease.

Mental illness is a part of life. Everybody goes through it. It should be treated only if it gets severe.

Mad, or crazy people visit psychologist and psychiatrist.

However, quite a few people residing in urban areas do release the importance of mental health. The awareness of mental health is higher when a known person goes through it than self going through it.

Gen-X perceptions are influenced by culture, movies, and television series. This generation saw a lot of stigmas in mental health. The movies and shows have usually shown a mentally ill person to be, ‘crazy.’

Perception of Gen-Z

 The gen-Z population is more open about mental issues. However, they lack knowledge about it.

In a study, it was found that Gen-Z recognized only depression as a mental illness, and only 0.29% of people recognized schizophrenia and other disorders.

Movies, TV shows, and even social media has influenced this generation. Movies have changed their perceptions of mental health a bit (by portraying illnesses exactly the way they are), but it’s still a long way to go.

 Mental health perceptions differ from generation to generation. The lack of awareness, lack of knowledge, and stigma is the biggest barrier to mental health.