The Twentysomething Treatment : A Revolutionary Remedy for an Uncertain Age

The author of The Defining Decade explains why the twenties are the most challenging time of life and reveals essential skills for handling the uncertainties surrounding work, love, friendship, mental health, and more during that decade and beyond.There is a young adult mental health crisis in America. So many twentysomethings are struggling—especially with anxiety, depression, and substance use—yet, as a culture, we are not sure what to think or do about it. Perhaps, it is said, young adults are snowflakes who melt when life turns up the heat. Or maybe, some argue, they're triggered for no reason at all. Yet, even as we trivialize twentysomething struggles, we are quick to pathologize them and to hand out diagnoses and medications. Medication is sometimes, but not always, the best medicine. For twenty-five years, Meg Jay has worked as a clinical psychologist who specializes in twentysomethings, and here she argues that most don't have disorders that must be treated: they have problems that can be solved. In these pages, she offers a revolutionary remedy that upends the medicalization of twentysomething life and advocates instead for skills over pills. In The Twentysomething Treatment, Jay teaches us: -How to think less about “what if” and more about “what is.” -How to feel uncertain without coming undone. -How to work—at work—toward competence and calm. -How to be social when social media functions as an evolutionary trap. -How to befriend someone and why this is more crucial for survival than ever. -How to love someone even though they may break your heart. -How to have sex when porn is easier and more available. -How to move, literally, toward happiness and health. -How to cook your way into confidence and connection. -How to change a bad habit you may not know you have. -How to decide when so much about life is undecided. -How to choose purpose at work and in love. The Twentysomething Treatment is a book that offers help and hope to millions of young adults—and to the friends, parents, partners, teachers, and mentors who care about them—just when they need it the most. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to find out how to improve our mental health by improving how we handle the uncertainties of life. The author of The Defining Decade explains why the twenties are the most challenging time of life and reveals essential skills for handling the uncertainties surrounding work, love, friendship, mental health, and more during that decade and beyond. Seventy-five percent of all mental health disorders emerge by the age of twenty-five, and twentysomethings are more likely to face depression, anxiety, and substance abuse than any other age group. The pandemic has intensified this crisis, but it was underway well before 2020, in large part because young people and the professionals who treat them have rushed to prescribe pills, rather than helping them develop essential life skills for dealing with the uncertainties that abound in our twenties. Medication is sometimes, but not always, the best medicine. For twenty-five years, Meg Jay has worked as a clinical psychologist who specializes in twentysomethings, and here she argues that most of them dont have disorders that must be they have problems that can be solved. It is time to upend the medicalization of young adult life or else we risk hobblingeven sickeningan entire generation. In The Twentysomething Treatment , Jay teaches us how to acquire essential skills such -How to be social when social media functions as an evolutionary trap. -How to befriend someone and why this is more crucial for survival than ever. -How to love someone even though they may break your heart. -How to make sex more fulfilling than you thought was possible. -How to move, literally, toward happiness and health. -How to face, rather than avoid, bad feelings so they wont haunt you. -How to cook your way into confidence and connection. -How to change a bad habit. -How to decide when so much is undecided. -And how to choose purpose at work and in love. Along the way, Jay shares dozens of rich, revealing stories of students and clients who are learning to embrace uncertainty and live full lives. The Twentysomething Treatment is essential reading for anyone who wants to find out how mental health gets better when we get better at life.