Generation Holden Caulfield

            
             The teenage years are, without argument, the most confusing and formative years of a person's transition into adulthood, and the onus of an anxiety filled teenage existence leads, naturally, to an anxiety filled adult existence, as well as a variety of prescription medications and therapies along the way. In the past, individual and sociological problems eluded the adult regime which only saw the common woes of growth "apathetically, and as a rite of passage, a shared experience, and even a duty, but it only takes several school shootings to reevaluate how difficult life should be for a modern high school student Teen angst, growing pains, and a litany of vague terms describing the emotional problems of adolescence have been thrown out of the proverbial window, so to speak, by this politically correct epoch. Teenage anxiety and teenage depression are the new politically correct labels of the adolescent psychological forefront, and these two problems, so ubiquitous they might as well be the standard rule of normal "not the measure of a problem, influence the lives and maturation of millions of people cursed with an affliction of the numerical appendage "teen."" Millions of teens live in constant anxiety and depression without their cognizance of a problem, millions more know and are brilliant at hiding the fact from others, and millions more are just flakes statistically, sociological problems such as these are extremely difficult to quantify, if possible at all, and take years of gathering data in order to gain any sort of conclusion, but by examining the quantifiable world of problems created by this duo, their widespread grip on juvenescence acquires an eerie tangibility. .
             Adolescents and adults experience anxiety on a regular basis, but adults, with more worldly experience, are much better adapted to acknowledging their own anxiety; many children and teens can only vaguely grasp the concept, and many live in a world where being stressed out, light headed, and dizzy is perceived as only a hindrance to their excelling.