Suicide Prevention Awareness Month: Gen Z and the "Loneliness Epidemic"
As we've covered in past posts this month, suicide is unfortunately the cause of death for young people at a disproportionate rate.
In the United States alone, it's the second-leading cause of death for the age group 15-34. Roughly 75% of that age group is made up by Gen Z (people born between 1997 and 2012 -- people aged between 13-29).
Gen Z (myself included!) is stuck in an interesting and unique spot societally. From experiencing all the effects of growing up in the digital age to seriously debating whether or not it's appropriate to bring iced coffee to a job interview, there always seems to be so much happening with Gen Z thematically.
There are a LOT of themes to explore with Gen Z, but as The Recess Bell continues to recognize September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, the theme I've settled on discussing today is something ailing Gen Z as we speak -- to such a degree that there's even a whole phrase for it: the loneliness epidemic.
The Heartbreaking Numbers
An analysis of feelings of loneliness in adults charted in different age groups. Via STATISTA.
Before we continue, please understand that the "loneliness epidemic" or loneliness is obviously not specific to Gen Z alone. That's not what I'm trying to allude to, either.
With that being said, take a look at the graph above. Young Gen Z adults report the heaviest feelings of loneliness compared to Millennials or Gen X adults.
Stats across the board back this up. A study and survey conducted by Cigna found that within the workforce, younger workers experience feelings of loneliness more-so than their older coworkers.
The same study also found a connection between these lonely-feeling younger people and social media usage:
"One reason why younger people may feel more isolated, may be their greater tendency to use social media. The study found an increasing correlation between social media usage and feelings of loneliness. Seven out of 10 heavy social media users, 71%, reported feelings of loneliness, up from 53% a year ago. That compares to 51% of light social media users feeling lonely, up from 47% a year ago." — CNBC: 'Loneliness is on the rise and younger workers and social media users feel it most, Cigna survey finds'
What's remarkable about this survey is that it was conducted in January 2020 — yes, pre-COVID pandemic and the subsequent shutdowns and quarantine, where social media usage obviously spiked nationwide.
So how about a much more recent survey? A 2025 Cigna report found that, again, Gen Z reported the highest rates of loneliness, followed perfectly in sequence by Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers. I just brought up social media usage: not only was Gen Z the very first generation to be "born into the internet" -- Gen Z also was the generation that saw the highest spike in social media usage during the COVID-19 shutdown.
In the prior two posts on mentality discussing suicide prevention, we discussed the ironclad ties between higher feelings of loneliness (lack of support) and higher rates of self-harm and suicide. That's obviously very troubling, and that is why support lifelines like '988' exist.
988 isn't the only lifeline available to people in crisis -- for example, the Crisis Text Line (741741) is a non-profit, text-based mental health service available 24-7. The Crisis Text Line was founded by Dr. Shairi Turner, who was quoted in the Los Angeles Times about some of the aforementioned connection between Gen Z, heavy social media usage, and heightened feelings of loneliness:
“They’re 14-29 now, so they’re digital natives, very comfortable with being connected to people by phone... But that connection isn’t a replacement for human connection. It gives the illusion of being close, but without real interpersonal interaction.”
Dr. Shairi Turner: physician, mental health advocate, and founder of the Crisis Text Line.
“This is a generation that lived through the pandemic during some key developmental years — some of their formative years may have been in lockdown, using smartphones, [instead of] developing critical social skills... Gen Z is more likely to have been raised in single-parent households, and may have come home to an empty home where one parent was working or they were going back and forth between homes."
Gen Z: Crafted; Molded by Loneliness
If I can speak personally for a moment: not to sound like a victim, but as a Gen-Zer, we've absolutely been dealt some unique hands compared to other generations.
Each generation's had their challenges, obstacles and circumstances to overcome, for sure. But as Dr. Turner stated, there have been certain challenges that have been interwoven into Gen Z since our childhoods.
Yes, Gen Z has experienced the highest rates of growing up in single-parent households. Per the American Survey Center, Americans raised in single-family homes were much more likely to report feelings of loneliness upon growing up, missing out on key formative experiences that breed connectivity and routine like regular family meals. Also, per the ASC, a majority of Gen Z Americans reported that they felt lonely at least once a month during their childhoods. That majority measured out at 57% of American Gen-Zers.
More than just a cheesy stock image: regular family meals are shown to boost feelings of connectivity and warmth in the household; and Gen Z children have experienced the least of them.
If you're keeping score, that's increased feelings of loneliness in childhood (higher rates of "broken families"), increased feelings of loneliness in adolescence (heavy social media usage), and increased feelings of loneliness in adulthood, which can be explained by workforce struggles and the economic downturn that has defined the 2020s thus far.
These numbers, in theory, explain a lot about the many complaints that people make about Gen Z that go viral on social media every other week. It's zero coincidence that the age group dominated by Gen Z produce the highest rates of suicide.
Where there is loneliness and an overall lack of support to be found, usually there are vices to be found as well. Each generation has had their distinct forms of escapism. With Gen X, it was the bottle. For Millennials, it's largely smoking and retail therapy. When it comes to Gen Z, it's the digital vices, dominated by online gambling and pornography -- both of which have never been more accessible and normalized in the history of society than they are presently.
While Gen Z drinks alcohol less often than previous generations, research shows that Gen Z individuals are much more prone to online vices, which can be just as unhealthy on the body and mind.
Whether it's Gen Z or any other generation, it's true of most people that without healthy coping strategies, we can turn to drowning ourselves in costly habits to feel... something. Anything. That's a universal truth, and I find it to be the most counterproductive thing in the world to judge people for a reality that we all experience in some way, shape or form.
I've witnessed multiple Gen-Zers brag about not being "nasty" by not smoking cigarettes as often as past generations' people have. Smoking is a critically unhealthy long-term habit, no doubt. With that being said, I present the following:
"Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually" — former U.S. surgeon general Vivek Murthy in 2023
Former U.S. surgeon general Vivek Murthy — Murthy left the role in 2025 when relieved by the Trump Administration.
"We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It's like hunger or thirst. It's a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing" — Vivek Murthy in an interview with The Associated Press
"Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30 percent, with the report revealing that those with poor social relationships also had a greater risk of stroke and heart disease. Isolation also elevates a person's likelihood for experiencing depression, anxiety and dementia" — U.S. Surgeon General office research
Reversing the Curse
I wrote about some of my personal experiences with both good and poor support systems and how it conributed positively and negatively to my mental health. While it's true that good support received directly correlates to higher self-esteem and mood, we should all know by now that it isn't that simple.
I've already covered that loneliness has been interwoven into nearly every avenue of the average Gen-Zer's life, right from childhood. I say this in every single post at this point, but our mental makeup in adulthood is largely carved by what we experience in our formative years. So that's a mountain that Gen Z individuals have to overcome without really knowing how to overcome them.
The broken family households. The phones. The economy. The unfairness of it all. It's the reason for all the deviations from socially-accepted professionalism norms, the soaring rates of diagnosed neurodivergence, the overarching need to "punish" people, and even the Gen Z stare. Sure, why not?
Gen Z in many ways is obsessed with "standing on business," and while that's noble some of the time, it's hustling backwards most of the time in the grand scheme of things.
If there's one thing I've learned about mental health (and just life in general) it's that unlearning the "why me" ideology that so many of us carry is the first step to producing a much healthier mindset and much healthier ways to cope with a difficult world.
Gen Z's got many reasons to wallow and feel slighted, as you can see. But the reality for any person from any generation is that there is no growth without acceptance. Growth isn't found in playing the blame game and losing yourself in whichever vice suits you. Real, fundamental growth starts with acceptance of one's history, circumstances and even personal shortcomings.
Acceptance breeds accountability, but even better than that? Acceptance breeds patience, peace and a better understanding of self. Better understanding of self can lead to better understanding of others, making friendships and genuine connections much easier and much less of a conundrum.
Healing from trauma (and yes, severe loneliness qualifies) is a multi-step process. It's made easier by good support systems and healthy "attack" strategies. I believe that the chief reason that Gen Z is tragically committing suicide and self-harm at such higher rates than older generations is that loneliness has put onto us right at the earliest points of our lives without the manual or roadmap directly available to us to overcome all of it.
Unfortunately, healing is hard work and requires such large effort at times. It's far easier to blame everyone and everything else and be so stubborn in your own ways to the point that you're getting kicked out of a job interview for refusing to throw away your iced coffee. It's easier to pick a vice and engorge yourself in that vice daily as a distraction from everything that ails you. Ultimately, it's just spinning the hamster wheel while the problems remain.
I'll close this suicide prevention campaign the same way I started it: trust and safety. Those are the pillars of true support and they're the pillars of how we can drive down this widespread mental health and suicide/self-harm crisis among young people. That old phrase, "slow and steady wins the race?" Same logic applies. We didn't start with the safety plan right in front of us, but we can absolutely finish with it. That's done by using resources like therapy and all of its different forms, or even turning to a trusted friend or family member more and more.
And then we can pass that wisdom along to our neighbor and so on and so on. I swear we'd be blown away at how much things would improve.
