you know in this day and age on social media ideas come and go much faster than we think despite our dying attention span things come and go that we don't have any time to process anything at all anymore barely any time to absorb what people are saying and how things are being said and there are very rare instances in which an idea is shared spreads like wildfire they call it going viral by the way and despite our fried attention spans that can only watch 7 Seconds of a video it sticks with us some examples would be a trend is resurrected from 20 years ago and it's given a new name an injustice is talked about enough that it gains international support such as the ongoing free Palestine movement or you know a funky new terminology is introduced for us to overuse and until it loses its meaning and that is the case in point for this afternoon the genen Z version of live laugh love that is be delusional so for those of you who are chronically offline like my sister let me fill you in on what the word delusional means so uh I'm not sure if I'm happy to report that I have street cred on this but I do because in a recent survey conducted in my college barcada group chat I was voted most delusional right and of that's credibility it's not my my CV that that is one strong credential of why I can educate you on what delusional means in the context of genzi so it's it means to dream big it's to defy limits it's not to let any sort of realistic barrier hold you back and some genzies have a catch their I say more annoying way of saying it the ULU is the culu or in normal people words delusion is the solution and I find this very interesting because it introduces a contradiction to the jenzi identity so just to make sure we're all on the same page this afternoon let's define who jenz is before any old person comes at me later and be like oh these darn genen Z kids and they're referring to like 5-year-olds no so jenz is composed of individuals born between 1997 and 2012 we're between 12 to 27 years old now and we're also known as the digital natives meaning we grew up at the dawn of the internet and have been reliant on it since and with that according to Dr Roberta Catz a senior research scholar at the Stanford center of advanced study in the Behavioral Science she describes Our Generation that she's done extensive research on by the way she describes us as and I quote a generation that deeply cares about others strives for a diverse community is highly collaborative and social and values authenticity and not only that Dr Katz goes on to mention a key characteristic that our generation has that my generation has were very practical this is mainly because we've inherited Global issues such as climate change political tensions economic insecurity that forces us to make our decision- making rooted in reality and this is why it's so fun to entertain the concept of being delusional because it challenges that mold it allows us to bask in this fantasy of What kinds of lives would we like to live if our current circumstances were in such an issue you know it's good vibes about like be delusional like you know don't don't think of like what's impossible like impossible itself is like the word I impossible right those corny quotes from Millennials no shade to Millennials by the way but with that said you know it it sounds like good at advice be delusional but unfortunately all these Good Vibes they get lost in translation once you look at it in the context of mental health you see being delusional or having delusions rather is considered a sign of pathology in fact as we look at the dictionary definition of what it means to have a delusion the root word of delusional it is described as an irrational belief about one's external reality held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary and the cherry on top of this my dudes is occurring especially in mental conditions let's let's sit with that for a while right so if we're working with this definition then this is not something that you should encourage let alone to be proud of and so if we're working with this definition then does this mean that an entire generation my generation have we lost the plot and I stand before you as a genzi mental health professional It's the Best of Both Worlds it's this dichotomy that has forced me to wrestle with this cognitive dissonance for quite some time now and I followed this debate on the internet for a while a lot of people have been viewing it as an angle of who is right and whose perspective is rooted in misinformation valid questions to ask right but at the same time I feel that these two sides are strong contenders one is a generation trying to make sense of their lived experiences the other is a group of mental health professionals trying to preserve the Integrity of a word so that mental health conditions don't get stigmatized any further strong contenders but I find the questions so reductive in this ongoing debate like who is right who is wrong and I'd like to PO a different question this afternoon why why the term delusional out of all words that we have available and so you know I as an overthinker i molded over it for quite some time now triy to make sense of why this kind of dissonance exists and I'm reminded of a class that I took in my undergrad developmental psychology are there any psych Majors here oh fellow crazy people but yeah so developmental psychology is the study of different Milestones that we achieve as humans as we grow up and so in early childhood when we are very little human beings like we start to learn new words and all children will make the inevitable mistake of using one word to generalize everything else this is called assimilation an example would be the word dog you teach your kid that the four that the furry four-legged creature that they see in the living room is a dog child gets that they absorb that okay that's dog the you give your give your child an iPad they go on YouTube they start watching cat videos and in their little child brains they interpret that as oh furry four-legged creature and then they say dog even if it looks nothing like it and so you correct the child you tell them that oh there's a difference between a dog and a cat despite their glaring similarities and so the child learns eventually through new words that they need the right ideas the right words to get their the right message across and then once this cognitive skill is honed enough the child grows up to be wise enough to not call all forms of violence War when one group is at extreme advantage over the other and an ethnic cleansing is being commenced that's no longer a war that's a genocide and with these two examples in mind it's very important that we first entertain this Theory grounded in reality in research maybe an entire generation has been experiencing a decline in critical thinking maybe we are facing an educational crisis of sorts that people are misusing a word entirely but as a genzi person and yes I will play devil's advocate for a while I think it's so condescending and mocking even of jz's perception of the world that we live in so let me explain have we considered that maybe there are enough similarities between delusion as a mantra and delusion as a pathology think about it a delusion is this blatant refusal to accept one's reality the very Stark difference however is seen in how it affects the individual pathological delusion shows that it impaires an individual from functioning properly the genzi delusion however does not impair the individual it's a source of motiv ation it helps you cope no matter how D the circumstances are if you're being delusional about your reality then you start to feel confident again so why is that the case to further understand the genzi perspective we have to look at our current circumstances genzies are known to be practical mainly because of the premise that we are inheriting Global issues that we are bound to face the consequences of in the next few decades if not the next few years and the need to be practical is seen across all the board you see it everywhere for instance in the workplace genzies are garnering the reputation of being entitled simply because we're asking for fair wages for the work that we do our parents are starting to worry about us because we're delaying married life and Parenthood and we're also realizing some of us are making the Bold Choice even to be childree because we're realizing that raising a tiny human who doesn't know the difference between dog and cat is not only an emotional risk it's an economic one and this forces us to really consider being realistic and not delusional and guys don't let's not get started with being Filipinos I think that adds a different level of difficulty in our lives think about it we're experiencing high levels of inflation high costs of living low wages and even this cultural expectation to give back to our families right away all of these are factors that can keep us from daring to dream big daring to dream and be delusional about things and I'm reminded of a quote by sheno Connor who once said that it is no measure of Health to be well adjusted in a profoundly sick Society I think this is what genzi means when they use the term be delusional it's not that we have irrational beliefs about reality it's more that we refuse to accept that this is the reality that we have to put up with for the rest of our lives this isn't livable anymore and the societal dysfunction is starting to is starting to spread everywhere it's becoming a prevalent issue and a lot of this dread is actually caused by how many of us are starting to lose faith in the future because our point of reference for a good life is still dependent on the realities of previous generations whose circumstances are nowhere near what we're experiencing right now think about it back in the day it was normal to get settled down in your 20s to get married to have children by 30s not only do you achieve job security because you stayed in the same job that you've been working in since you were 18 you're also on your way to Financial Freedom and so it's possible to still build inheritance buy property and travel the world that's no longer the case for Gen Z right now especially for those without any sort of financial safety n in the first place and I think this Collective dread that we feel leads us to being delusional to escaping from reality for quite some time so that we fantasize about a different reality where there are not as many barriers as we are experiencing now and with that in mind I think if we are to correct the genen Z Mantra much more work needs to be done than slamming a thesaurus to our faces and saying that's not delusional actually it's this word it's confidence it's self-efficacy but I think the in congruence between gen Z and mental health professionals understanding of the word is an invitation for us to reflect on our current circumstances aren't we ashamed that the current system we participate in is only Built for survival and not success think about that for a while we have to start asking ourselves what Collective change needs to happen for success to be the norm again what kinds of institutional support do our young people need so that they don't feel delusional about a brighter future for themselves and in this conversation I think it's very important to remember that sickness and health in the context of mental health is heavily based on what we deem normal and what we deem normal in society is what we allow to continue in our culture our belief belie our behaviors and so it's very important that we keep in mind how exactly can we enact change how exactly can we work as a collective and build a future that makes us feel hopeful and not delusional and I'm putting great emphasis on Collective change because we're now at a point in our lives where individual efforts are no longer enough we're coming out of a pandemic and contrary to The Killers we're not doing just fine in fact we're very lonely we're more socially isolated than ever and this calls for the need to return to Our Roots to find our Capo again to rebuild and reform our communities so that we have faith in ourselves again that's what we need and I don't think like in defense of mental health professionals I don't think delusion is the word that we're holding on to as a generation but rather it's hope hope for a brighter and better future for all of us hope that we find our communities hope for the liberation of all especially for the people in Palestine hope that you know we can dream and I don't think that hope is a bad thing I've been told that hope is the enemy and I've been very been very ambivalent about that because the difference between delusion and hope is that with a delusion no amount of effort can ever realize whatever dreams you have with hope however there is courage and belief and trust that it can happen and that it will and so it is my hope that we no longer be self-deprecating in our ability to dream for more I hope that we stop using the word delusional to describe our very normal inherent and human need to want more out of this life you know despite all the perils my generation is about to face in the next decade or so we're also optimistic enough to want to make long lasting changes and it is my hope that this Collective hunger we have for a better future drives us to a world where we no longer dismiss our ability to persevere as mere delusion I'm dannie and thanks for being here [Applause] [Music]