STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

This was an interesting article, even if it's a little patronizing. But it's true that our generation never had to deal with real hardship. On a side note, I always thought Gen X ended somewhere in the mid-70s (which would make me Gen Y, but this article says no. Hmmmm).

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/1119genanxiety1119.html#

For Gen X, it's anxiety nation

Stephanie Earls
Albany Times Union
Nov. 19, 2005 12:00 AM

If you're already feeling a little anxious about the state of the world, you might want to crank up some Nirvana or Pearl Jam before you sit down to read this story.

Re-listen to the invigorating anthems of angst and ask yourself: Wasn't it much more fun when feeling depressed wasn't so, well ... depressing?

The bad news of the past four years - and the past four months in particular - has hit especially hard for Gen Xers, the generation stereotyped as crazy-smart computer geeks, proud losers and self-righteously disaffected grunge rockers, who came of age in the 1980s and '90s.

The roughly 60 million Americans born between 1965 and 1980 were young enough to be mostly untouched by Vietnam and old enough to burrow into decent careers, pre-outsourcing.

Most didn't grow up over-medicated or over-managed by helicopter parents. They played with lawn darts. They were baby-sat by complete strangers.

They were perhaps the first generation to know want, rather than need, and to have only a passing knowledge of anxiety. The Persian Gulf War - the only major military conflict that really registered for most Americans during this time period - was billed as an efficient victory.

For a time, Gen Xers indeed seemed to have gotten off light, living in a world of certainties. They had the luxury to be self-destructive, could be politically aware without the obligation to be politically active. It was a time for guilt-free self-indulgence.

"We grew up mostly in the Clinton administration and, not saying he was a perfect president, those were pretty easy times. Everybody was making money. Everything was pretty relaxed," said 32-year-old Ed McCormick, of Albany, N.Y. "We grew up hearing about things from our grandparents and our parents, but I always felt we kind of missed out on it. All the major battles were already fought."

But then came the new millennium, and Sept. 11.

Then, the war. The past year has seen an onslaught of the most deadly natural disasters in years. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq drags on. Fuel prices, interest rates and job losses are an underscoring malignancy. We are "in a recession," as they say.

The U.S. Supreme Court shuffle could - should conservative Judge Samuel Alito be confirmed - crack the foundations upon which the generation based its understanding of being American.

And don't forget: Bitter cold is coming, and we haven't even gotten our first heating bill yet.

"I think we're in a state of constant anxiety now," McCormick said. "We're worried about all kinds of things: fuel, hurricanes, low approval ratings for Bush. We lost faith because of the slow response to the hurricane."

One of the scariest parts, said 32-year-old Karin Nachinoff of Albany, is that today's problems don't seem fixable.

"I guess I'm seeing more how broken our system is, and has been for a long time," Nachinoff said. "Many people I know have their escape route to Canada all planned out."

The perceptions of younger generations, especially those that hit cultural awareness around the time of Sept. 11, offer powerful insight, though.

"Students (in college) today have a feeling they are living in very, very difficult times," said Douglas Lonnstrom, director of the Siena Research Institute and a professor of finance and statistics.

Lonnstrom, who is in his 60s, says his own parents - the generation responsible for the baby boom - lived during much tougher times than he does.

"My father was born in 1908, and the reason we moved to Albany from Brooklyn was that my father got laid off in the Depression," Lonnstrom said.

Lonnstrom ponders a question: Which period actually was the "most trying?" He put the question to national experts, asking them to rank eight difficult episodes in U.S. history. Though he's not yet ready to release results of the survey, he said that current times - the war on terrorism - made the list, along with the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, the Depression, World War II, the Cold War and the cultural revolution of the 1960s.

The fact that current times made the top eight says something. Current times are characterized by limitations, rather than the freedoms Americans had become accustomed to over the past two decades.

"Right now, there's a sense that the average person is in a gloomy mood. I think that people are sitting down and saying to themselves that there are things I wanted to do that I can't do anymore," he said. "I wanted to go to the Holy Land, but now I can't go to the Holy Land. I wanted to go to France, but I can't right now. These things are impacting us."

The effects of Hurricane Katrina will continue to radiate, as well.

"The first news of the hurricane was the devastation, now what's beginning to hit people is what it's going to take to rebuild," Lonnstrom said. "That's billions of dollars. It's going to affect your grandchildren."

The question now: What to do about these new blues?

Sure, there's always therapy and pharmaceuticals. But Karen Reivich, a psychologist and research associate at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has another suggestion.

"We're hardwired to remember the negative things, rather than the good stuff. And evolutionarily that makes sense, because if you learn from the bad things, then you can hang around long enough to pass on your genes," said Reivich, a contributor to the Web site www.reflectivehappiness.com, an online magazine about optimism. "The good news about happiness is that there are simple things that people can do despite the current landscape."

Joy facilitates resilience, Reivich said. And that's never more necessary than in times of high anxiety.

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