On one hand, there's the bullshit. For me, school pressures was a big one. The attitude that it's good grades or complete failure is drilled into your head from day one. Even though I know it's not true, I was told so many times that even after graduation, I still accept it like gospel. Can't shake it. This makes me, and I imagine many of my peers too, feel fearful and inadequate.
Climate change that no one seems to be doing anything about, or outright refusing to accept its existence, stresses me even more. The weather is blisteringly hot. So much so that animals are dying in Australia from it. Or it's devastatingly cold, so much so that people are dying in America from it. Crazy weather events in amounts I never remember before. Uh, nuclear weapons, too. Extinction in general, really, very stressful. (Sidenote: I genuinely don't believe most climate change "deniers" with wealth really believe what they say. Most have a financial incentive to try to convince people there is nothing to worry about, like cigarette salesmen).
Shootings and violence seem to be all around. When there's a school shooting in America, people here in Ireland talk about it hours later. Police brutality, race attacks, club shootings... It's probably down to how hyper connected we all are now. Tragedies never seem to end because we hear about them all, immediately, and so it seems we are just deconstructing as a society even though we're living in the most peaceful time in human history. Violence and hatred towards trans teenagers gets me, personally. It's incredibly saddening.
There's a housing crisis here, rent is impossible in Dublin. The world economy is quite fucked. I hear about the 1% often. Financial stress is breathing down my family's neck.
Plus, family baggage. My father's an asshole. People are now learning that parents aren't your masters to be accepted no matter what. It can cause some people to isolate themselves or get cut away from family. Or abuse. Domestic violence and bad partners, being stuck with them because it's so expensive to live alone.
The world seems so scary. You're just plopped in it and forced to obey alot of scary people who are much taller than you that might try to kill you or fuck you over to get ahead. But believing this makes you cynical or paranoid. Work follows you home, especially with technology. No one gets to relax fully and people are often too distracted by technology to just sit back and breathe for once. All we're exposed to is catastrophe after catastrophe, it gets the clicks.
(Not to say technology is all bad. It's lit. Dank. But it has its drawbacks.)
On the other hand, there is a large dialogue going on about mental health lately (at least in Ireland, as suicide rates here are the highest in Europe.) More and more people are talking about it. In a somewhat more fucked up sense, teens talk about because it's heavily romanticised in film. But also, it's becoming more generally accepted that people just have problems. It's just human nature. Mental health services are improving, awareness is being spread. It's nothing to he ashamed of... this makes people more comfortable and open.
Plus self deprecating humour is a big boy among kids, and mental health does get used alot in these jokes so you can hear about it that way too.
These are most of the reasons myself and my peers feel like ShitTM consistently. I hope this answers your question at least a little bit. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.