Stress is historically something that humans have adapted to help us get out of dangerous situations. We all have bad stress and good stress. Good stress for those who are unfamiliar is called eustress and is what we feel when we are excited and motivated to action. It is beneficial to our bodies and minds making us focused and creative. Negative stress is called distress. From a chemical perspective what is happening in the body is the same in both eustress and distress. What makes them different is how we perceive the situation we are in (Tocino-Smith, 2020). If the situation in which we find ourselves makes us feel negative or anxious this is distress. Having this kind of stress over a long period can dampen our immune systems and eventually lead to an array of different disorders. One common one is adrenal fatigue (Island 2018). In the American culture, many things contribute to distressful stress: long work hours, constant stimulation from technology, as well as our economic climate, political climate, climate change and to top it off, a global pandemic. Most people do not thrive under these conditions. Our minds and environments play a huge role in keeping our bodies healthy but how do we do this when the general population has such limited access to psychological tools. There is a sense that we must combat our environments in a very different way than ever before and it taxes our bodies and minds.

Millennials and Generation Z are more stressed than any other generation before them. The social environments (work, school, etc) these generations are a part of are becoming more taxing on them emotionally, mentally, and physically. Millennials are dealing with burnout in the workplace, as they work crazy hours and don’t see comparable wages. They are lonely, many not making social connections as easily as previous generations (Hoffower & Akhtar, 2020). Millennials and gen Z have the fastest-growing rates of depression and many turn to drugs. An APA survey indicates Gen Z is reporting that they are stressed, significantly more than any other generation report. The basic tasks like concentrating and feeling the drive to do anything are challenging. As new adults, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the changes that need to be made in society as a whole. Without mentioning their personal lives, the loans upon loans being put on to them for college, while job prospects that may not be fulfilling, or are fulfilling but won’t cover the cost of living (Gander, 2020). All of this can feel a little hopeless. If something doesn’t change we will have to face the consequences brought on by poor mental health.

Ironically, many of the psychological facts that circulate in popular culture are incorrect, making matters worse in the stress department. In truth, many of these psychological facts can do more harm than good. For example, Freud is still talked about these days by many people as if all of his ideas are relevant. In reality, most modern-day psychologists have come to different, better conclusions than the ones he had. Freud’s analysis has limited effects. This is just one of many tidbits of misinformation that is out there (Miller, 1969). Another example of a self-help fad that has taken the nation by storm is the bullet journal. This is a manner of keeping a journal that entails interactive planning and a lot of artistic forethought. For some people, this is a very good tool and helps them to prioritize what is important in their lives. These tools of organization could be really helpful for some individuals but for others this could be distracting and unhelpful (Russell, 2019). We need psychology to better our world and sadly what is out there is not doing the trick.

The self-help options that are out there are lacking and usually end up rubbing people the wrong way or simply not working. This can be very frustrating and causes people to think that there is something wrong with themselves as individuals if the advice in these books does not work. Another outcome is that they become frustrated trying over and over something that isn’t helping and potentially causing more stress. These books, tips, and tricks have become laughable. It makes promoting more difficult for the self-help advice that works because people give up after reading exhaustive amounts of articles or books that are irrelevant to them personally. The struggle self-help authors have is that they sterilize people (Schamel, 2020). They look at a person on their own, what their personality or decision-making process is without looking at environmental factors. All of those things can be helpful but in the end, those things are dynamic and change when a person changes the environment they are in. Changing how we interact with the world is a journey and will take time. It takes time to learn what helps you as an individual and build up to having a different frame of mind. I hope this is a process that we can go through together. We can change our futures.