Feature Friday: Gen Z's Mental Health Crisis

For this Feature Friday, we’re sharing this post from Breakpoint about the mental health crisis facing this generation.

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Saint Augustine observed that the human heart is restless until its rest is found in God. This certainly applies to our culture today. Restlessness can manifest itself in many forms, one being an unprecedented mental health crisis.

As a CDC spokeswoman bluntly stated, “young people”— especially young women — “are in crisis.” An article in The New York Times summarized, “Nearly three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021 … and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide. Author Jonathan Haidt wrote, ”We are now 11 years into the largest epidemic of adolescent mental illness ever recorded.”

On the plus side, there are proven positive social effects of religious belonging. In the face of Gen Z’s mental health crisis, it is the Gospel and not gloom that should motivate and inform us. God has made us for Himself. The kind of postmodern individualism that Gen Z was raised with will never deliver on its promises. This mental health crisis is a spiritual crisis. We have the opportunity to introduce a generation of restless hearts to the One able to deliver on His promises to bring rest to their souls. 

Read the full post from Breakpoint here.