‘I will not be doing it again’

Reflections on anxiety in Generation Z

Featured in

  • Published 20220127
  • ISBN: 978-1-92221-65-8
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

I’VE BEEN TEACHING at Australian universities for twenty-five years now. I began when I was twenty-seven – I’m now fifty-two. This means I’ve been next to university students since 1996, and if you’re curious about these things, you see patterns begin to emerge.

Every parent, every aunt or uncle, every grandparent, and in fact anyone who has anything to do with young people today is anxious about one thing: anxiety. It seems it’s on the rise. It is on the rise. Each semester I have more and more students with depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, some form of autism, borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and what I’m going to call Terror About The Future. All of these conditions cause anxiety.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

Keeping faith with words

EssayFOR MOST OF us who care to think about such things, the teenager was invented by JD Salinger in 1951. Of course, before he...

More from this edition

High resolve

PoetrySo I taught myself to run again (again). It’s all about the playlist. Plus the way the cold forgives us, given time. I say good morning like...

Sacraments of guilt

MemoirIT’S THE LAST Tuesday of May and the coldest day of the year so far. The temperature has fallen 10 degrees in the past...

Why do you want to make things?

GR OnlineGraffiti artists are known to feel more certain about their identity after creating work; they become more receptive to other perspectives, activities and opportunities. They’re not as worried that these other behaviours will obscure their identity – an identity that is now stable and enduring

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.