Why is anxiety and loneliness common in the young?

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chris1989
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03 Dec 2025, 1:20 pm

I can't understand why anxiety and loneliness is seemingly more prevalent in the young than it is in other age groups although I do know know that the elderly are vulnerable to loneliness.

It feels as though it should be the best time of life but I hear stories of people of the millennial and gen z generations that have mental health struggles and loneliness and I find myself even having so many overthinking anxious and negative thoughts that seem irrational to others but not to me and feel as though the world is ending. I feel like older people seem more relaxed and happier and makes me think so why aren't we ? What have we got to worry about ?

I remember someone saying in response to hearing about mental health in the young, that there has never been a better time to live, there are less wars in the world, people are living longer, people's health and life expectancy has been improving for years whereas other generations lived through world wars, the cold war (constant threat of nuclear war) etc. It wish I didn't have anxiety and feelings of loneliness sometimes because it does make me think I'm the only one and that I'm wasting a short life by not enjoying it.



lostonearth35
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07 Dec 2025, 11:35 pm

Covid. The world as we know it will never recover, and we have at least two or three more pandemics hanging over us like the grim reaper.



EmpireHonda
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09 Dec 2025, 9:04 am

One possible reason for why older people seem less affected is that once you reach a certain age, you just stop caring. I noticed that when I got into my late twenties and early thirties, a lot of my anxieties went away, because my emotional investment in different areas of life was becoming less and less. I say never be emotionally invested in something you can't control.


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CockneyRebel
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09 Dec 2025, 3:48 pm

When people are young, they care. People get jaded as they get older and they don't care anymore.


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