This is the second article in a six-part series on Gen Z and mental health, in which we look at some of the conditions they are experiencing, including anxiety, depression and eating disorders. We talk to Gen Zs who share their stories, and to experts for their advice on ways to recover and thrive. The latest Pixar Animation Studios film, Inside Out 2, sees its main human character, Riley, enter puberty and experience new emotions – represented, as in the first film, by animated characters. One of these is Anxiety, whose main job is to protect her “from all things she cannot see”. Anxiety is constantly thinking 10 steps ahead, conjuring up any scenario that could go wrong – and taking measures to avoid it. While other emotions come to terms with Anxiety being a normal and necessary feeling for Riley, the film hints at the consequences when Anxiety becomes so persistent and severe that she completely takes over Riley’s mind. In real life, anxiety is the body’s response to stress and feelings of fear and dread. And in Hong Kong, Generation Z is experiencing more than its fair share of those. Minal Mahtani, the founder and chief executive of mental health charity OCD & Anxiety Support Hong Kong (OCDAHK), sees this at first hand in her work. The most recent survey by insurance company AXA of mind health and well-being, released in September 2023, showed that, among Gen Zs in Hong Kong, only one in 10 respondents said they were “flourishing”. In addition, 67 per cent of Gen Z respondents reported experiencing moderate to extreme stress levels in the past year, compared with 53 per cent of all respondents. When overwhelming feelings of anxiety persist for three months to six months causing high levels of distress and disruption to daily living and functioning, the condition may be considered as an anxiety disorder, Mahtani says. Common sources of anxiety for Gen Z include the pressure to do well in school, career planning, and stress about living up to their own or their parents’ expectations. Social media use among this digital generation has contributed to their high anxiety. Feeling not good enough, struggles with body image and comparing themselves to others online have shaped their insecurities, Mahtani says. It is hard to pinpoint the exact causes of anxiety, as it can be linked with other issues such as traumas and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), says Katrine Cheng, a clinical counsellor in Hong Kong. Without warning, “the person may feel a surge of acute fear, anxiety or worries of losing control or even dying”, she says. It would be helpful if Hong Kong schools organised more mental health awareness weeks regularly, Cheng says. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), symptoms of anxiety disorders may include trouble concentrating or making decisions; feeling irritable, tense or restless; nausea or abdominal distress; heart palpitations; sweating, trembling or shaking; trouble sleeping; and having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom. About four per cent of the world’s population has an anxiety disorder – 301 million people in 2019 – and of those only about a quarter seek help to treat it, the WHO says. Cheng offers emotionally focused therapy that allows a patient to enter the “foreign, strange, dangerous and terrifying places” of the mind with their therapist through in-depth conversations, enabling them to revise anxiety-inducing thoughts. Comments are closed.
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