Gen Z, Mental Health, and the Impacts of Systemic Neglect

Milo Santamaria | October 2024

Many major research reports have come out showing that abuse and domestic violence are often the main causes of youth mental health issues, not the internet or social media like many new outlets claim.

Gen Z is one of the most politically active generations, we are passionate about reversing climate change, achieving racial justice, feminism, and LGBTQ+ rights. We are not a hopeless or apathetic generation, yet we are also facing high levels of depression and anxiety.

Many people think of mental health as a very individual challenge, that all it takes is talk therapy and medication. However, young people are not only individually facing neglect and abuse at the hands of their families and caretakers. Some teenagers and families are also currently experiencing systemic neglect on a widespread scale. This week, families from Florida to West Virginia, have lost their homes and livelihoods, with little to no support from the federal government.

Every year many teenagers watch as their classmates are killed or injured by school shooters, they protest and walk out to make their schools safe from gun violence, but their voices continue to be dismissed. I was born on the exact day Columbine happened, and I was 6 years old watching people being airlifted out of their homes in New Orleans, during Hurricane Katrina. A city that is still rebuilding, almost 20 years later.

This year, we have also watched the genocide in Gaza unfold on our phones, as the US government continues to send billions of dollars to fund Israel’s genocidal war.

How are children and teens supposed to grow up without mental health issues, or feelings of despair, after constantly witnessing such destruction and pain? After getting told time and time again, that their families are not worth saving from floods? That they don’t deserve to feel safe from gun violence at school? That an entire city could be leveled to the ground or completely underwater and the US wouldn’t lift a finger if they were born in the wrong area of the world?

If neglect and abuse correlate to mental health issues and depression, then what is the impact of our government failing to protect us from harm and provide support during disaster? Being abandoned by the people we rely on to protect us is devastating and traumatizing.

But hey, what do I know? Maybe it’s just that damn phone.