proportion of new university
graduates in full-time employ-
ment dropped to 41.7 per cent
(making that HELP debt feel
totally worthwhile). One in 10
Australians use antidepressant
drugs, one of the highest rates
in the world. And yet we are
labelled spoilt and indulged by
those generations who have
come before us, generations
who have mortgages, pensions
and ‘ jobs for life’.
And so here I am, standing
in front of a woman called
Stephanie Kazolides. Who may
or may not have the answer.
Stephanie founded The Quarter
Life Health Project last year,
after having a post-university
crisis of her own which left her,
like me, bedbound. She tells me
she recovered when her cousin
introduced her to yoga, plant-
based eating and she adopted
a more holistic approach to
her health. I can feel my eyes
rolling in my head.
Last year she hosted seven
week-long retreats like this
one, and received hundreds of
applications from those who
spotted her f lyers strategically
left in yoga class or stumbled
across reviews on health blogs.
The course was so popular she
had to turn away 30 people
when the retreat launched, she
tells me, sitting cross-legged
atop a sea of white cushions.
We arrived days earlier in
dribs and drabs. Gemma*, a
29-year-old from Manchester,
and I shared a ride from the
airport together. She told me
she teaches yoga part-time,
alongside working as a free-
lance hair and makeup artist,
but is basically here to take
some time for herself away
from juggling two businesses
and family life. I share a bunk
bed in the communal dorm
with a young woman from New
Zealand called Charla*, who isalso 29. Her UK visa expires
in a few months, and she has
no idea what to do next. Steph
says her usual clientele come
from busy cities where they’re
on the brink of burnout, and
that she uses the questionnaire
to check how open-minded
they’ll be during their stay.VERY DEEP BREATHS
‘A quarter-life crisis often
follows four stages, and unfolds
over several years,’ Dr Oliver
Robinson, a senior lecturer in
psychology who has extensively
researched mental health in
emerging adulthood, told me
before my trip from his office
in the University of Greenwich.
‘I would say a breakdown is
something that happens during
a crisis when a person feels
they can’t manage and has to
step back their commitments
for some time to regroup.’ >W H O
E V E N
AM I?‘LAST YEAR, I BECAME
SO ANXIOUS THAT I
LOST ALL FEELING IN
THE RIGHTHAND SIDE
OF MY BODY
FOR A WEEK’
COSMOPOLITAN SEPTEMBER 2017 105