To think that adults are much less resilient than they used to be

[louease]

First of all I'll admit that I'm on the older side of 60 so the weight of my belt onion could be effecting my judgement on this.

I see a lot on social media including here where people say they are upset at words they read on a screen, that they've been triggered, or that it should have a warning attached.

Are we making the world harder to live in by trying to make it too comfortable do you think?

This is such a typical response for the less resilient. Instead of discussing the point, attack the person. All these names and labels to put people down instead of engaging in debate.

I think some of it is useful - like the trigger warnings on some posts on mumsnet that the topic is about sexual assault or child abuse

But how is that useful. Surely the fact that it is even mentioned means it's triggering?

'Let’s go back to the time when people suffered in silence and shame. When they had to self medicate with booze or pills or kill themselves to cope.

People self medicating their emotional problems with booze drugs and pills appears to have escalated hugely post ww2. It's far worse now than in the 1960's.

Because it means the poster knows not to click on that thread?

I despise that sort of judgement. We are probably at the very end of the boomer generation; I never think too much about it.

Yes, there were grants for university; however even if your parents had pretty bog standard jobs, they were income-related. Many fewer people had the opportunity to go to uni in the first place. You could own your own house but it might not have had a bathroom. I remember 'wash day' and mum having a little Burco Boiler to boil wash cloth nappies.

I can recall getting our first fridge, and colour TV. We were the first of our neighbours to have a phone line. If anyone needed to make a phone call, they'd ask to use ours and give you a shilling or sixpence, thrupence - don't remember that bit clearly! Nothing was handed to anyone on a plate. My dad was born pre WW2, my mum during it. Parents both worked, as we had to both work to afford to buy our home, rear our family and pay through the nose for childcare.

It actually angers me to learn that people are jealous of each other because of the year of their birth.

I’m only in my 30s and totally agree with what you’re saying. I’d be embarrassed to say I cried over something I read on the Internet. Can’t believe it when I see trigger warning. people need to get a grip!!

If you actually believe what you just wrote, then you are an idiot.

Nobody knew anything about climate change back then and none of us had a crystal ball - but I will tell you, people did not fly off abroad at the drop of a hat several times a year. We recycled, milk and lemonade bottles for example. We didn't use plastic carrier bags - we took our own to the shop.

There was much less car ownership. Meals were mostly cooked from scratch and their components did not come in loads of packaging. We wore our clothes until outgrown or outworn, when they were often repurposed as cleaning cloths. We didn't buy cheap disposable garments because there were none.

Most of the produce we ate was local, not flown in from thousands of miles away out of season.

As for cheaper housing, it's all relative. Lower house prices, lower incomes. Our first house cost £28k on (at the time) a single salary of £12k and although the building society approved it, the estate agent told us we couldn't afford it... we did.

Yeah yeah, it was them boomers wot ruined the planet...🙄

Too lazy to read full thread...but the people I know and work with who are in their twenties are incredibly resilient, competent and conscientious. A bit serious maybe, but then they have some serious shit to deal with. I was a total fuckwit at 23, compared to my lovely colleague, who keeps me on track at work!
Maybe I just don't come across wimps though, my profession is fairly demanding.

I think what started as a desire to help people who really were neurodiverse, mentally ill, oppressed, or victims of abuse became appropriated through misunderstanding to the point that the terms became meaningless.

I witnessed it happen with OCD, anxiety, PTSD and neurodiversity.

And the words trauma and triggered went from meaning something specific in a clinical sense to meaning anything someone didn't like.

And of course the huge money-making industry when out of nowhere, virtually everyone was a victim of one or several narcissists. With made up pseudo-psychological terms to legitimise that victimhood to the point it means nothing now.

Absolutely agree. And the pandemic showed that, along with the current cost of living crisis

Now everyone has to have the latest whatever, or anxiety kicks in in case they get laughed at, people borrow as much as they can to have the life they think they deserve, kids are mollycoddled, no competitive sports at school, don’t mark in red, you can’t say no

People have to learn you can’t have everything, that’s screens are not the be all and end all you should be outside playing, teams games count and the rest

adults need to learn everything is cyclical, I lived through the three day week, the other cost of living crisis

bit now everyone wants everything on a plate delivered, complete with big bow

" so the weight of my belt onion...."

What the hell does that mean?

Started out as useful then became meaningless.

No-one enjoys thinking about child abuse and it's great that the viewer isn't surprised with scenes depicting it in films or on TV but people feeling the need to warn people of a written word in case it upsets someone is exactly what the OP is talking about.

Because it isn't just used for such serious topics. It's used for virtually anything.

I remember the trend on MN a few years ago of people self-diagnosing with trypophobia and trigger warnings bring used when the overwhelming majority of the population do not like to look at the kind of pictures used. They make most people cringe or feel grossed out and not want to see it. Which isn't the same thing as a phobia in the slightest.

@MaryMcCarthy "Important thing was I had an onion on my belt..."

We pathologise normal emotions - stress, anxiety, sadness.

Exactly this.

It's not a normal experience anymore, it's a 'symptom' of something.

@HamBone essentially they are mandating training because some of the protesters were considered to be disruptive and that is in breach of the school's policy. The full reasoning can be found here if you're interested https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Next-Steps-on-Protests-and-Free-Speech.pdf?mkttok=ODg0LUZTQi0zMDcAAAGKqNfmUfz2SSPCzkgUjCQGrC2DR1ji-TGeKtn3NnnIoJpAduaZaZdKteNsL5dGzCkk5cwWC6vm8autYIUyUQO4uIJy6lLbBGo47NHk883iTA

Unfortunately it’s not just adults that are becoming less resilient but I believe we are literally making the younger generation also less resilient too. I know mental health is important but there’s never been another time previously where everyone is literally screaming anxiety about the slightest little things, and before everyone jumps on me I understand some people genuinely suffer but it’s as if everyone is far to quick to diagnose themselves with ADHD or anxiety. I’ve literally seen people on benefit pages asking how to get more money if they say they suffer with this and that and it’s always something invisible that people can far too easily fake and I have to say that winds me up immensely

I myself have suffered with Post Natal Depression and denied it for months because I genuinely never thought it could be that, but I believe we’ve just opened up everything far too much for everyone to just claim this is what they have so can’t work or whatever

There you go you can all flame me now

@Scottsy200Sorry, I'm very tired, is that a parody post?

Has there ever been a time in history when people didn't think younger people, and the world in general, weren't going soft and somehow inferior to themselves?

It's just a standard "boo young people, boo benefits, boo the world today but my suffering is real" post.

@ReneBumsWombats ah okay, thank you. It was all of the outlandish "literally"s that made me wonder. I do tend to miss the obvious tho!

I agree. Young people seem to imagine that years ago everyone had some sort of mental health issue - they really didn't. Most people were busy and just got on with their lives, they didn't sit around thinking how tragic and unfair life was as so many seem to do now. Many people can't seem to cope with basic emotions, if they feel anxious or sad they don't understand those are normal emotions which everyone has and are able to be dealt with. Far too much over analysing everything now. Young people have so much more freedom and so much more choice than ever before, and yet they can't cope with it.

Well said, and I agree that the person who wrote the original post is an idiot. Just another case of someone who wasn't there at the time knowing everying about it.

Yes you are right. Im an idiot. The boomer generation did everything right. And were so resilient.... And didn't know anything about climate change.

https://theconversation.com/30-years-ago-global-warming-became-front-page-news-and-both-republicans-and-democrats-took-it-seriously-97658

Have a look at our world in data (climate). Take notice of emissions, and the x axis. I mean, Im an idiot... but tell me what happens during the 80s?

'Ok boomer' is concise and to the point. It covers a lot of the dross involved in complaining about younger generations when the boomer generation luxuriated in wealth thereby ruining opportunities for future generations.

I think it’s not a question of resiliency- people speak up about things they used to shut up about back in the old days.