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The Terrible Early Twenties (?)

Is it a myth? I have noticed a pattern amongst myself and my friends that it seems the deterioration of the mind peaks during this period of your life. I am almost 23 and am having the worst period of my life with mental struggle, but again, it seems I am not alone with this; even at an immediate level. Has/is anyone else on TSR experienced/experiencing this? Does it get easier to cope with age?
I'm the same age as you and although this year has been quite good for me in many ways, I've felt a similar way to you for a while and lots of my friends do as well.

For many people, the early to mid twenties are a period of flux. Lots of us are trying to forge a path in life, finishing university and looking for careers, relationships and the kinds of emotional and financial stability that are hard to maintain at our age. As the years go by, lots of these issues get cleared up for many people, so the underlying instabilities that cause this way of thinking stop being such an issue. I think the important thing is to feel that you are working towards something. Those of us who go to university have an obvious goal while we are there and I think it's important to keep striving for things afterwards. For example, I've just graduated and I am working towards postgraduate study, so there is something that can occupy me for a while. For plenty of friends who don't have anything lined up, it feels that they're walking into the unknown, which is a very scary feeling indeed. I think that feeling of being adrift in the wider world causes problems for a lot of people in their early twenties but with time and experience, it gets easier.
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Avatar for -aimz
-aimz
17
I think you're definitely right, and the above poster too. I think it is a lot of do with the massive amount of forward momentum up to this point - from GCSEs to A-Levels and then university, we've been working towards this point for years, and to suddenly reach the stage of life where there is no clear next step...it's really scary, especially if you're not lucky enough to walk into a grad scheme/job/further study after graduation and you have no real clue about what you want to do. I think everyone I know at my age experiences this to varying degrees - some of my friends are fine, but I've had an absolutely awful couple of months since graduation, mental health-wise. I'm hoping it gets better as we grow older and everything settles more. The one thing that really disappoints me is the lack of support for recent graduates who feel like this - everything seems to focus on either students or young people already in employment.

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