Lonely, burned out, and depressed: The state of millennials’ mental health in 2020

Depression and “deaths of despair” are on the rise among millennials, many of whom suffer from loneliness, money stress, and burnout in the workplace.

Millennials suffer from burnout, depression, and loneliness. Photo: Dmitriy Bilous/Getty Images

By Hillary Hoffower and Allana Akhtar

Millennials are changing the way people look at and talk about mental health.

Business Insider took a look at the mental-health state of millennials (defined by the Pew Research Center as the cohort ages 24 to 39 in 2020), and millennials tend to have higher rates of depression than other generations. The country’s COVID-19 crisis only exacerbated the issue.

Millennials also feel that their jobs have an outsize role in their overall mental health. Because of longer work hours and stagnant wages, millennials suffer from higher rates of burnout than other generations. Many of them have even quit their jobs for mental-health reasons.

While some millennials can’t afford to get help, they’re more likely to go to therapy than previous generations, destigmatizing the concept in the process.

Here are 14 ways mental illness has plagued the millennial generation.

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