CRASH OUT QUEEN

Why do we hold in emotions, and how does the generational divide impact individuality

By: Jack Leary

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Credit: Maria Jansson

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“Crashing out” is a term that has circulated for several months now and essentially means having an emotional outburst about something and acting upon these emotional impulses without thinking of potential consequences, even if they are self-sabotaging. This ‘something’ looks different for everyone, such as getting ghosted out of nowhere, or completely failing a midterm after studying for weeks. 

We’ve adopted this term of “crashing out” pretty quickly, to the point that most people understand what we are talking about. There are so many more terms being created every day as well, and with this rise of new vocabulary comes numerous sources of media and research to investigate.  

Recent research about emotional outbursts has begun including the idea of “crashing out” when researching current youth, primarily because it details a different version of outburst previously seen. 

For this reason, as well as believing that crashing out is much more ‘violent’ in nature, researchers have buckled down on the idea that emotional dysregulation is unhealthy for anyone in any age group.

Although I cannot disagree with the idea that emotional dysregulation is unhealthy, we as students, adults, employees, caretakers, and more, are being overanalyzed for outwardly expressing the intensity of our emotions. Not only that, we are overanalyzed for how we express our individuality. 

Given America’s rise in cultural diversity, people would be more open to accepting new things happening around them. Yet, as new generations are introduced to the world, and old generations remain from less accepting times, our society (depending on where you place yourself) has become a world of new versus old. 

Some older generations feel threatened by Gen Z being over-the-top with their individuality, saying that we may be too bold or over-the-top, but why does this examination of our self-expression seem much more intense compared to previous generations? And why has everything become an instance of competition or battle?

With older generations, many communities grew up being taught to be quiet and limit their self-expression out of fear of possible repercussions or potential judgment. 

Being seen as different for any reason would lead to many consequences and can still impact people today. Yet, with the rise in acceptance from newer generations, it seems like older generations hold on to the tradition of limited self-expression.

However, if we take influence from older generations and participate in limiting our emotional expression and individuality, we would not be ourselves, nor would we have the amount of diversity we currently have in today’s world. 

This possibility of regression into older traditions serves as a threat to our heavily individualistic society, along with our self-preservation.

With limiting outward expression follows the limiting of personal expression, where mental and physical health can greatly decline, it’s vital that our generations and younger generations continue to prioritize their emotions. 

If crashing out is needed in certain situations, or if you feel the need to discuss problems going on in your life, we should be given the right to properly express why we feel a certain way. If we bottle up our “crash-out worthy” behavior, it will continue to ruminate within ourselves until an emotional cascade is imminent. 

Hopefully, as our generation continues to grow and find ourselves in our skin, we are able to understand and portray to previous generations that the limitation of expression to any extent is harmful to everyone in the long run. 

We have been placed on this planet to survive, but also thrive and find connection. Without proper communication both internally and externally, it will be as if everyone is on a floating rock by themselves.

Crash out when a crash out is warranted. Cry when you need to, be authentically yourself in all aspects of your life, and don’t feel ashamed if you find yourself being embarrassed. Embarrassment is only a mindset, and if we can all properly portray ourselves together, moving throughout life can be a little easier. 

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Jack Leary is an Online Writer for Rowdy and is crashing out while writing this bio because he has 3 midterms back-to-back this week. If you need to crash out and have no one to crash out to, feel free to reach him @jack.l.15 on Instagram.