“America is experiencing a youth mental health crisis…so many twenty-somethings are suffering, and as a culture we don’t know what to think or do,” writes Dr. Meg Jay. ing.
A developmental clinical psychologist, Jay has spent 25 years specializing in treating young adult patients.
In her new book, The 20s Cure: A Revolutionary Treatment for Age Uncertainty, which was released on April 9, she writes that the 20s are a particularly difficult decade, and that in the long run, They claim that drugs can make things even more difficult.
“It’s a really, really difficult time right now, because this is the only time in our lives where everything is uncertain and everything is unstable,” Jay told the Post. “The brain doesn’t like that. It’s very stressful and makes people depressed and anxious.”
However, taking drugs rather than actually learning how to deal with the stress of change can potentially set young people up for disaster later in life.
“People in their 20s are more likely to be prescribed medication after just one visit to their GP,” Jay explained. “They are often diagnosed and medicated quickly for stressors that are actually developmentally normal and temporary situations.”
She writes: “We quickly diagnose their pathology and provide diagnosis and treatment to people in their 20s, whose brains and lives are still active.”
Jay’s book teaches the importance of being truly social in the age of social media, loving despite the risk of heartbreak, making bold decisions, and focusing on what is rather than what if. She teaches young people in their 20s — all of these are important pillars, she says. It is the foundation for a healthy and balanced adult life.
Without these skills, people will suffer through the anxiety of their twenties and become dependent on drugs rather than self-actualization.
Dr. Jay has seen people in their 20s suffer throughout his quarter-century career, but says it’s only recently that medical professionals have started over-prescribing them.
“My 20s were the lowest point for my mental health as long as I kept doing this,” said Jay, a faculty member at the University of Virginia. “Actually, it’s not new that people in their 20s are struggling. It’s new that people are talking about it.
She added, “Twenty years ago, very few clients in my clinic were taking their medications. Now, the idea is that more is better, and that medicine can only have its positive side. I think you are.”
But Jay, who is also the author of the 2012 bestseller The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of The Now, says that 20-somethings often need a gentle guiding hand rather than drugs. I argue that there are many.
“In a nutshell, my approach to young adults is skills, not medicine,” she explained. “Whether it’s work, love, finances or friends, I try to help people in their 20s develop the skills they need to improve their mental health.”
That’s why her book includes more than a dozen “how-to” chapters on life skills: how to love, how to work, how to socialize, how to cook, and even how to have sex.
“There’s a lot of research being done on how the 20s are a developmental sweet spot,” Jay explained. “Many people in their 20s just need a little adjustment, some good advice, or six months or a year to make a big difference in their lives.”
And while she is of course an advocate and practitioner of clinical treatment, she also hopes that “The Twentysomething Treatment” will help those who perhaps need solid advice.
“The reality is that therapy is inaccessible and unaffordable for most people. I wrote this book to try to change that very situation, to help people realize that they might not need a $200-an-hour therapist every week. Maybe I can share everything I learned with this book,” Jay said.
She told the Post that while she’s glad parents, educators and therapists are interested in her approach, she wrote the book for 20-somethings themselves.
She said she hears questions every day from young people who learned about her through her books, asking if they could be her clients and how they can find a therapist who specializes in their age group.
“I hope their biggest takeaway is hope,” Jay said. “People hear that their 20s are the best time of their lives. Probably not. As people move through their 20s and into their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, life becomes more It’s going to get better.”
