It’s a difficult time to be alive. At least that’s the way that millions of people all over the world feel.
The truth, of course, is a little more complicated. With each new generation, certain things improve and other things decline. Nevertheless, self-reported cases of stress, anxiety, and depression have reached all-time highs.
Why is that? What’s happening and what does it mean for the increasingly large number of people requiring social, emotional, and mental health services?
In this article, we take a look at how human behavioral trends has shifted over the last decade and what that means for the future.
Overview: What Factors Are Weighing on People’s Minds?
To adequately explain all of the things that could be contributing to the high rates of stress, anxiety, and depression that are currently being observed in modern society, we would need a lot more time and space than is available within this 1,000-word article.
That said, there are several obvious factors that bear mentioning. In the United States in particular, there are higher levels of social discord that have been observed in a long time. There’s tension amongst neighbors, families, friends, and communities.
Add to this a growing sense of isolation that has been born of the remote work boom, and it is the case that many people feel less connected to their community than ever before. To that end, many of us are still recovering from the lingering effects of the pandemic.
There were financial, social, and emotional consequences to COVID-19 that may continue to reverberate through our society for the next 20 years. Stir in inflation, a stagnant job market, and the uncertainties created by mass automation, and we live in an era where comfort and assurance are hard to come by.
People feel stressed out, and they have lots of reasons to justify that feeling.
It’s Not All Bad
Since we gave space to all of the negative things that are going on in society, it’s only fair to mention that there are also positive reasons why people are leaning on social and emotional resources more heavily than before.
One of them: broader awareness and acceptance of mental health needs. It’s now more mainstream than ever to say, “I need help dealing with this.” One can assume that there were high levels of stress felt during World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the 50s and 60s—full of political assassinations and social uncertainty.
But people didn’t necessarily have the resources to seek help dealing with these feelings. Mental health in America has taken great strides in the 21st century. While there’s still certainly lots of room for improvement, we have finally arrived in the social climate where it’s okay to struggle and ask for help.
The Outcome
All of this is to say that it’s very common for people to require help. This has led to a significant increase in demand for mental health professionals and social workers.
The more people struggle with mental health, the higher the demand becomes for people who can help them deal with it. Social work careers have seen a particular rise in demand over the last two decades.
Social workers have a unique set of skills that can apply to so many of the situations we’ve described above. They’re trained in certain contexts to work as counselors for people struggling with mental health.
They can apply their skills toward family reunification initiatives. They can assist in the school setting for children with behavioral problems, anxiety, or depression. They can even help people who are struggling with addiction or aggressive tendencies.
Name a societal problem. Chances are very good there is a social worker with a specific set of skills designed to help solve it.
How to Become a Social Worker
If you are interested in a high-impact career that can be applied to so many different levels of social need, this is definitely a great option to consider.
You can technically work as a social worker with only an undergraduate degree. However, this qualifies you only for the most entry-level positions within the field.
If you’d like to work at a higher level, you’ll need a graduate degree. There are two pieces of good news on that end:
- If you have a bachelor’s degree in social work, you can get your master’s within one year, assuming you work as a full-time student.
- If you have an undergraduate degree that isn’t in social work, you can still earn an MSW. In this case, it will take two years, but in terms of career pivots, that’s a relatively advantageous time frame.
Once you’ve earned the credential, there are so many different applications. You can shift from one area of focus to the next, sometimes just by applying for new jobs, other times by acquiring additional credentials.
Most of these credentials are reasonably easy to achieve in a compact time frame, though the extent to which this is the case will vary based on the job you’re interested in.
Conclusion
It’s very easy to feel worried about the state of society, particularly when you look at rates of anxiety, depression, and stress. There is a generalized feeling of hopelessness across almost all segments of the population.
Does that mean that things are worse now than they’ve ever been? No. In fact, one could argue that, though there is lots of uncertainty in the world, there are also lots of opportunities to fix the problems that weigh most heavily on people’s minds.
One of the best ways to contribute is to pursue a meaningful career. Social work jobs are on the rise, they’re highly impactful, and they provide you with a real way to help solve some of the community problems your community is facing.
Mariam holds an MS in Sociology with a specialization in Medical Sociology and Social Psychology. With a strong academic background and extensive research work in both fields, she brings depth and clarity to complex topics. Her writing explores the intersection of society, health, and the human mind, making academic ideas easy to grasp and relevant to everyday life.
