When Simone Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics gymnastics team finals in July, she catapulted a conversation into the mainstream that had been gaining steam like her run-ups to the vault: Even the most accomplished among us sometimes have to take a step back to take care of our mental health. And for people in the 24-year-old gold medalist’s age group who are living under pressures like no generation before, recognizing when you’re not okay and in need of support and self-care is more important than ever.
“Today’s adolescents and young adults are growing up in an age of anxiety,” says Patrice Harris, MD, a psychiatrist and Everyday Health's medical editor in chief at large. "They're living in an age of active shooter drills at school, bullying, ‘fear of missing out,’ and success measured by the number of likes — along with pressure, often from peers — that comes with social media use. And when your peers are not just your classmates, but millions of people, as with Olympians, there's even greater pressure."
Indeed while the pressures of being the gymnastics GOAT are largely in a category of their own (Biles told Hota Kotb on Today that the sexual abuse she and hundreds of others suffered under former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar may have been a trigger during the Games), today’s teens and young adults ages 16 to 26 don’t have to be in the international spotlight to experience a new set of stressors beyond previous generations’ traditional expectations to...
Read Full Story: https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/under-pressure/
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