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In the last few years, after working with some younger clients, I’m seeing more anxiety in my coaching clients. I recently came across the book The Anxious Generation and wondered, could this be the reason why?
WHAT CLIENT’S ARE BRINGING
It’s coming up more frequently when doing a sample coaching session with a new prospect, “I’m feeling a lot of anxiety in my life and I don’t know how to change it.” “My anxiety is getting worse and preventing me from moving forward in my life.” The people telling me this are not the ones in their 50’s and 60’s, they’re the ones in their late 20’s and early 30’s.
Coaching is not therapy. It’s not a coach’s job to solve the problem for the client. It’s the coaches job to create awareness for the client. To help them consider a different perspective from the one they are currently holding, which often is the reason they are stuck. And though coaching is not therapy, nor advice giving, I find myself frequently having an internal struggle with sharing my thoughts on what may be contributing to the anxiety. Because as a coach, it upsets me seeing more anxiety in my coaching clients.
NEW RESEARCH
John Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation speaks to why so many younger people now are more and more anxious due to smartphones and the influences of social media on young minds.
The Anxious Generation focuses on those born after 1995, known as Gen Z. And states that issues with anxiety and depression in this generation began to grow starting in 2010. When smartphones became ubiquitous and children began to have their own.
In Haidt’s 2023 presentation at the National Summit on Education he speaks about what began to happen to this generation when smartphones became something virtually every child had. Attention spans became shorter, anxiety and depression increased in both boys and girls. Though, he says, increase was greater in girls, there was definitely an affect on boys as well. Social interactions became less and loneliness and isolation increased.
NOT JUST GEN Z
We know the addictive behaviours that smartphone use creates in us. We know the stress we all feel from the myriad of notifications. The beeps and buzzes coming at us all day, and sometimes all night. Yet few of us will take our own mental health in hand and control or silence that stress. We are addicted to the dopamine hit.
The clients I work with in their 20’s and 30’s are affected by this. I can hear it in their stories as they share their struggles, stresses and worries about their lives. Yet in coaching it is not my job to give advice or guide a client to a certain conclusion. Even asking a client how might taking your cell phone to bed each night be affecting your sleep?, is leading the client down a certain path.
It’s a struggle I continue to wrestle with in my coaching practice. But it’s also something that is key to helping younger clients have a more rich, fulfilling, joyous life. Perhaps by simply reading books such as The Anxious Generation and sharing them on my website, those seeking to improve their lives may find the reference here, and begin the journey to greater self awareness on their own.