87% GenZs feel relationships are the biggest cause of stress, along with work pressure: ITC Fiama survey

New Delhi: On Mental Health day, ITC Fiama in collaboration with NielsenIQ has released its second consecutive Mental Well-being study.

The survey, designed to ascertain the causes of stress with the changing lifestyle of youth in India, revealed that work is the biggest cause of stress for Millennials, while relationships and breakups are the single largest source of stress for GenZ.

Mental well-being, over the last few years, has been gaining significance in everyday life. with dialogues around it strengthening the momentum. Young adults, globally, are looking to transform their lifestyle with mental wellness at its very core. While this proactive dialogue on handling everyday stress and anxiety is a positive shift, the pressures of managing unmet social needs continue to impact the emotional and social well-being of the younger generations. Be it GenZ or Millennials, men or women - everybody is battling stress, albeit due to varying causes.

Some of the key highlights of the survey are:

The survey findings indicate that Work, Relationships and Social Media are the key factors that cause stress in India.

Work & Career Decisions

Work and career-related decisions take the undisputed top spot in factors that cause stress to Indians, work aspects being the single largest cause of stress in 81 % of millennials and 47% of GenZ. GenZ also seems to feel the pressure of career decisions more than millennials while for the latter, work pressure and trying to balance their work and other aspects of life, and politics at the workplace are the top factors causing stress. 57% of millennials say that negative mental health impacts their performance at the workplace.

The Fiama Mental Wellbeing survey reveals further that causes of stress for women are different from those for men - Women, tend to feel more stressed due to work than men with 71% saying that they suffer burnout to live up to the societal standards of success and 72% feel that Monday blues are real.

Relationships

Relationship struggles are the single largest source of stress for a staggering 87% of GenZ with 1 in 3 stating that their mental well-being is greatly impacted if they break up with their partner. Their mental health is significantly impacted due to toxic relationships.

Women, a whopping 86%, also feel the pressure of a relationship more than men with breakups, the pressure of maintaining a relationship with family or partner as major stress triggers.

Social Media

The survey highlights that GenZs tend to be more stressed by social media than millennials with 39% mentioning social media as a major cause of stress. The findings also suggest that 66% of GenZ have taken a break from social media to balance their mental health.

It is interesting to note that despite the varied causes of stress and increasing anxiety, only 33% of GenZ are willing to seek immediate professional help if they have mental health issues. Young adults are exploring alternatives to de-stress - 43% turn to music to calm their nerves. For millennials, yoga, meditation as well as spending time with loved ones make it to the leading options to calm themselves, while social media has turned out to be a leading de-stressor for housewives who seek content that helps them destress.

Sameer Satpathy, Divisional Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited, said, “ITC Fiama is committed to making mental health and well-being a proactive conversation in India. The Fiama Mental Wellbeing Survey is a part of the brand initiative of ‘Feel good with Fiama’, which continues to identify vulnerabilities that cause stress and anxiety in everyday life. Further, the initiative helps foster more conversations and find avenues which can help young adults relieve stress. In collaboration with the Minds Foundation, ITC Fiama helps provide active therapy through its first Virtual Clinic for mental well-being."

In addition to the survey, ITC Fiama immerses its communication outreach in pop culture with a unique meme video series to help mitigate the stigma of mental health and therapy.

Memes have continued to be a constant in the fast-paced dynamic lifestyle of young adults and have often served as a powerful way to cope with stress. ITC Fiama’s campaign aims to reach the digital savvy GenZ, through the existing meme culture and motivate them to have constructive conversations on their mental health. While today’s digital ecosystem has turned serious conversations into light-hearted memes, conceptualized by Brand David, ITC Fiama turns classic and legendary memes into real-life situations, where protagonists encourage the need for mental well-being through a guided session to navigate through the mind-map of emotions.