[ad_1]
WE talk a lot these days about Generation X, Generation Z and Millennials but most of us haven’t got a clue what that means other than “people a lot younger than us”.
But now we have a new name for the youth of today: Generation Sicknote.
We have a new name for the youth of today: Generation Sicknote[/caption]
Youngsters are more likely to experience a mental disorder than any other age group[/caption]
A new report from the Resolution Foundation think tank has revealed that young people are increasingly blaming mental health problems for being jobless.
And they are doing it on a staggering scale.
A whopping one in three young people says they have experienced symptoms of mental illness — such as depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder — in 2022, and that’s up from one in four in 2000.
And youngsters are more likely to experience a mental disorder than any other age group.
The number of 18 to 24-year-olds who are now “economically inactive” due to health problems has more than DOUBLED in the past decade, rising from 93,000 to 190,000.
Two-thirds report suffering from poor mental health and four in ten claim that is the main reason why they don’t have a job.
That isn’t just a wave of misery for them — it’s a tsunami of pain for our economy too, with a huge number of working-age people not actually working and paying tax.
What on earth are we to make of these astonishing figures?
And what is behind them?
Some will blame the Covid lockdowns, which undoubtedly hit young people far harder than adults.
Others may claim it’s all the fault of Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, as youngsters compete online to pretend their bodies and lifestyles are impossibly perfect.
If either of those are to blame, then our British youth have been uniquely cursed because no other country appears to be suffering from the same level of job-defying mental anguish.
So what can be driving the younger generation away from work and back under the duvet?
I think the answer lies in our attitude to mental health.
We used to not talk about mental health enough.
Now we talk about it too much.
We have moved from brushing mental health under the carpet to putting it at the centre of everything — in big neon letters.
We have created this mental health crisis by medicalising everyday life.
We now treat perfectly normal feelings as if they are dangerous signs of mental ill health, whether it be depression, anxiety or anything else.
(This is also very damaging to people who genuinely DO struggle with mental health problems because it makes it harder for them to get the help they need.)
Cruel to be kind
There’s nothing wrong or abnormal about feeling upset about a relationship break-up or anxious about exams or a job interview.
Or, frankly, just having a bad day sometimes.
These are appropriate reactions to the medical condition we call “life” but now they’re treated as a problem — not just part and parcel of our human existence.
While older generations like mine were expected to simply get on with it, today’s parents often rush to mollycoddle their children — even into adulthood — while teachers send them home from school and doctors hand out anti-depressants like sweets.
Is it any wonder, then, that young people arrive in the workplace and can’t cope when the boss expects them to knuckle down and simply get on with the job?
Sometimes, as any parent knows, you have to be cruel to be kind.
Instead of abandoning these youngsters to a life of pyjama-clad poverty and unhappiness, we need to get them back to work.
We’re not doing young people a favour by turning them into Generation Sicknote.
- Watch Julia on TalkTV from 10am-1pm, Monday to Thursday.
Taylor’s talented… but no great Shakes
THE Victoria And Albert Museum in London is seeking a British “super-fan” to advise on the fan culture surrounding Taylor Swift.
Now, there’s no doubt that Tay-Tay – as she’s known in our house – is a pop culture phenomenon.
Taylor Swift is a pop culture phenomenon[/caption]
She writes her own songs, controls her business and doesn’t give in to the pornified fashion of female artistes baring every inch of their flesh to get attention.
Now an Oxford graduate has written a dissertation on the singer, claiming that she is as culturally significant as the likes of Shakespeare, Chaucer or Wordsworth.
Hmm. As great as Taylor’s music and lyrics are, and as successful as her billion-dollar world tour has been, it’s ridiculous to pretend that I Knew You Were Trouble and Cruel Summer are up there with Shakespearean sonnets or The Canterbury Tales.
Sorry, Swifties, but as the great woman herself said, you’ll just have to Shake It Off.
THE Donald Trump re-election bandwagon rumbles on after another big victory in the latest Republican primary race at the weekend.
That saw him win 60 per cent of the votes in South Carolina against his last remaining rival, Nikki Haley.
Give the woman credit, though – she has balls.
Even after a humiliating loss in her home state, where she was governor for six years, she is clinging on for dear life.
Her tactic is to stay in the race in the hope Trump will lose one of the many criminal court cases he faces.
That’s quite some campaign slogan: I’m better than the two alternatives – a guy who doesn’t know what time OR year it is, and another guy who could be doing time for years.
Woke is par for course
DESPITE our country’s public services being on their knees, our woke civil service is still busily spending taxpayers’ cash on diversity courses for their staff.
Among the 20 – yes, TWENTY! – different courses available are “Cultivating Your Cultural Intelligence” and “Creating Inclusive Virtual Teams”.
Our woke civil service is still busily spending taxpayers’ cash on diversity courses for their staff[/caption]
Do our civil servants do any ACTUAL WORK any more?
Or do they now spend all day, every day, attending seminars and Zoom meetings about how to be more “diverse” and “inclusive”, which basically means learning not to roll their eyes at a colleague’s “preferred pronouns” badge.
As millions wait for vital NHS operations, for passports, for criminal justice cases to come to court, council planning approval or even just for a passing Whitehall cleaner to answer the sodding phone, our civil servants have forgotten that their role is in their job title: To SERVE the public.
The only course I’d happily pay for them all to attend is one called “How To Do The Job We Actually Pay You For”.
Pasta? Don’t pan it
A NEW survey reveals that Britain’s No1 family meal is no longer the traditional roast dinner.
Nope, now it’s that Italian culinary delight, good old spaghetti Bolognese.
This will come as no surprise to any working parent.
Sure, I can turn out a delicious Christmas Day roast turkey with all the trimmings for the entire extended family, but it’s two days of blood, sweat and tears, and ends with a skip load’s worth of washing-up.
And who wants to deal with that after a hard day at the office when you can knock out a hearty pasta dish with just two pans?
Fast food doesn’t have to mean BAD food.
After all, spag bol doesn’t seem to have done the Italians much harm over the years.
Hands off our future
THE row over Lee Anderson’s comments about London Mayor Sadiq Khan isn’t going away.
The Tory MP, who was suspended from his party for claiming “Islamists” have “got control of Khan”, has refused to apologise after critics said his words were Islamophobic and racist.
Yet in the past week alone, the Speaker of the House of Commons was pressured into changing Parliamentary procedure because of threats to MPs’ safety from Islamist extremists and the hard Left; a Hamas slogan was beamed on to Westminster; Tower Bridge was closed down by a flag-waving mob; while three MPs now need police bodyguards and every Saturday marchers cheer on Hamas terrorists on our capital’s streets as the Met Police – and the London Mayor – stand by and do nothing.
I don’t believe Khan is controlled by Islamist extremists, but it is beyond doubt that they want to control our politics through threats and intimidation, and that we must never allow that to happen.
300’s a crowd
IT’S the phone call every parent dreads after they leave their teenager to “have a few friends over” on a Friday night.
Police had to disperse more than 300 teens who turned up outside a home in Worthing, West Sussex, after a party invitation went viral on Facebook.
Neighbours bombarded police with complaints as crowds of youths gathered outside in the street, damaging cars and generally causing a nuisance.
God only knows what state the house was left in at the end of the night.
As I have explained to my teenager and her friends in very clear terms: If you throw a wild party and trash my home, don’t be afraid of the police turning up – be afraid of ME turning up.
[ad_2]
Source link
