Relationship Status - Complicated!

Mental wellbeing, 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 continues to impact emotional and social wellbeing of the younger generations. Be it GenZ or Millennials, men or women - everybody is battling stress, albeit due to varying causes.

On Mental Health day, ITC Fiama in collaboration with NielsenIQ released its second consecutive Mental Wellbeing 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.

Key highlights of the survey:

It is interesting to note that despite the varied causes of stress and increasing anxiety, only 33% of GenZ is 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.

Speaking about the survey Sameer Satpathy, Divisional Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited, said, “ITC Fiama is committed to making mental health and wellbeing 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 wellbeing.”

In addition to the survey, this World Mental Health Day, 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 to 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 wellbeing through a guided session to navigate through the mind-map of emotions.