Numb And Dumb: Why This Generation Needs To Get F*cked Up Just To Feel

Does Generation-Y have a mental disorder? Because we are all on drugs.

We’ve all got something, don’t we? Anxiety, depression, ADHD, ADD, OCD? We’re being diagnosed and drugged up more than any other generation before us.

Doctors are handing out pills like they’re M&Ms.

A little antsy? Here, have an Adderall. Feeling nervous? No worries, here’s a ‘script for Xanax.

Don’t deal with your problems because there’s a pill for that.

We’re a generation who gets medicated by doctors while shamelessly self-medicating of our own devices.

We’re terrible influences on each other because we all encourage this lifestyle.

After the good doctor doles out the meds, we proceed to spend our weekends getting drunk, smoking weed, snorting coke and picking up strangers all while posting Instagrams with misplaced pride.

We spend so much time trying to amplify what feels good that we don’t even have real feelings anymore.

According to The American Journal of Psychiatry, when you have a mental disorder like depression or anxiety, it is directly correlated with a higher risk of drug abuse. Should that really be so surprising?

When you’re anxious or sad, you just want to numb those pesky feelings. You’ll do anything to make the sh*t inside of your head stop.

You want to feel good again, so you take dangerous measures to achieve that state of mind.

We have to get f*cked up to feel.

A study in the Journal of The American Board of Family Medicine shows that the abuse of prescription drugs has dramatically increased in young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.

Not to mention we’re a collective group of hard partiers and binge drinkers.

For Gen Y, it isn’t hard to get what we need to get our fix.

We’re using non-prescribed drugs, prescribed drugs, street drugs and alcohol just to experience and understand our emotions.

Have we forgotten how to feel by numbing the pain?

It’s easier to let your guard down when you’re drunk

We’re so guarded that it takes alcohol just to relax. We take the term “liquid courage” very seriously. We have so many inhibitions, so we get sauced to let them go. When you’re drunk, you don’t care about anything.

You’re not worried about getting judged by others or failing at something. Everything seems like it’s going to be OK for a little while.

There’s a party culture we can’t ignore

We all encourage each other to get f*cked up. From Instagram to peer pressure, we’re constantly told if we’re not partying, we’re losers.

While some choose to rise above it, they will tell you it isn’t without struggle. Gen-Y is a party culture. We’re privileged; there’s no denying that.

Bred within us is a sense of invincibility and a lack of accountability.

It’s easy to forget when you can’t remember

We push all of our problems deep down inside, so we don’t have to deal with them. We can make the mistake we want to make because, hey, we’re drunk, and it won’t matter in the morning.

We don’t have any real confidence anymore, so we mask our insecurities. We use drugs and alcohol as a means to justify our poor judgment and to do things we know we’ll regret when we sober up.

And if we regret them and feel shame? There are always bloody marys waiting at brunch.

We’re always looking for enhancements

We always think there’s something better out there, some better feeling. We start to become numb to any sober joy and can only find feelings of elation at the bottom of a bottle.

We get used to one feeling; it stops giving us that kick we desire, and so we move on to something else.

If we’re going to feel pain, we want to numb it

If you’re experiencing heartbreak, anxiety or any other form of pain, it’s a lot easier to numb it all than deal with the actual problem.

We’re not willing to take on and live with our pain, so instead, we take measures to try to forget about it.

We’re not a group that is good at processing, accepting and coping.

We’re spending all our time online

We’re so hungry for a connection to real people and real feelings that we end up going to extremes to meet those needs.

We’re so disconnected from reality that we don’t even remember how to live in it anymore. We get f*cked up to get grounded.

We’re terrified to say what we feel when we’re sober

We don't have the balls to say what we want when we're sober, so we wait until we're intoxicated to take the plunge. We take being drunk as an excuse to say all the things we want to say.

Telling someone how much you hate him or her suddenly becomes possible when you have alcohol to blame. We never own up to anything.

Drunk words are sober truths, and sober truths are weak words.

It’s been so long since we felt anything; we don’t even remember what it feels like to feel.

Real feelings terrify us. We don’t want to deal with them without the armor a substance can provide.

We’re so afraid of letting ourselves feel something fully because it means we aren’t the super humans we thought we were.

We’re so used to drinking and drugging ourselves happy that we just aren’t sure if we can find happiness in any other way.

On top of that, we’re scared sh*tless to look in the mirror and see the person who looks back at us.