Paralyzed by choice? weight the options.Then go with your gut and choose

“I NEVER KNEW GROWING UP WOULD BE SO HARD.” At 23, Candice* has a degree in drama and performance studies, and a string of acclaimed productions on her CV, but she’s battling to survive between bit parts in professional productions.

Even teaching odd classes “when I can find them” can’t cover rent and put food on the table. This year, after yet another unsuccessful audition, she had an anxiety attack. “I collapsed,” she says. “I couldn’t breathe; I was hyperventilating and had chills.” A frightened roommate rushed her to the hospital where doctors got her to breathe slowly. The attack passed—but she’s moved back home. “I can’t believe I’m back...But lots of my friends never left home and it’s amazing how many I’ve discovered are on antidepressants, now that I am too—even those doing engineering. There’s just so much pressure and stress.”

Anxiety among Generation Y—those born between 1980 and 2000— is reportedly soaring. “I see too many Gen Ys at my practice,” says psychologist Lisa Grant-Stuart. According to a UK charity YouthNet, one in three Gen Y women and one in 10 men have panic attacks, and in a 2013 US survey by the American College Health Association, 57% of female students and 40% of male students reported an episode in the past year of being so anxious and depressed, they struggled to function. Writing in Psychology Today, psychology professor Gregg Henriques says that evidence suggests that college students today have greater levels of psychopathology and stress than ever before.