What I See As The Biggest Challenges Young Adults Face Today

What I see as the biggest challenges young adults face today

[Author Name]

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

What I see as the biggest challenges young adults face today

The transition from teenager to adult is overwhelming as there are many challenges that young adults have to face in their life every day. As technology has become an indispensable part of our lives, the rise in the use of social media has also played a vital role in enhancing the challenges the young adults face. The three main challenges that I feel are the most important are mental illness, drug addiction, and body imaging.

An increase in mental illness among young adults is alarming. According to the research, there were more than 11.2 million adults in the US that have a severe mental illness (“NIMH » Mental Illness,” n.d.). Most of the research conducted on the mental health of young adults indicates that social media is the leading cause of increased mental illness among young adults. Although social media may be beneficial for some, yet it has several negative impacts as well. These impacts are associated with depression, anxiety, etc.

An escalation in the abuse of drugs among young adults is highlight concerning. The main reason behind this is a socioeconomic disadvantage (Redonnet & Melchior, 2012). Due to social inequalities, young adults are prone to become drug addicts. Furthermore, there is an increasing trend of abuse of prescription drugs among young adults in the US (Compton & Volkow, 2006). This is because prescription drugs are easily available in the market, and most of them are also not illegal.

The increase in the promotion of unrealistic body ideals has given rise to the body image issue. Social media sites, and specifically, Instagram is the main reason that is causing the body image issue. People compare their bodies with celebrities, and Instagram models that make them feel depressed (Wagner & Bryant, 2016). Specifically, females are more prone to compare themselves with models than males and will go to extremes to achieve the body that is promoted on social media sites (Wagner & Bryant, 2016).

Although the list of challenges that young adults face is very long yet the three issues that are discussed above are the most important ones, and should not be neglected. There is a need for an awareness program on both the community level, and in educational institutes. Furthermore, positive messages regarding body imaging should be shared to decrease the stress caused by unrealistic body images.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Redonnet, B., Chollet, A., Fombonne, E., Bowes, L., & Melchior, M. (2012). Tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and other illegal drug use among young adults: The socioeconomic context. Drug and alcohol dependence, 121(3), 231-239.

Compton, W. M., & Volkow, N. D. (2006). Abuse of prescription drugs and the risk of addiction. Drug and alcohol dependence, 83, S4-S7.

Ferguson, J., & Negy, C. (2018). Chloe Berryman, Christopher. Psychiatr Q, 89, 307-314.

NIMH » Mental Illness. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2019, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml

Rodgers, R. F., Franko, D. L., Donovan, E., Cousineau, T., Yates, K., McGowan, K., ... & Lowy, A. S. (2017). Body image in emerging adults: the protective role of self-compassion. Body image, 22, 148-155.

Wagner, C. N., Aguirre Alfaro, E., & Bryant, E. M. (2016). The relationship between Instagram selfies and body image in young adult women. First Monday, 21(9).