Picture this: it’s Wednesday night, I’m standing in the kitchen with a half-folded basket of laundry on the counter, dinner is somehow both burning and not done, my phone has 47 unread notifications, and one of the kids just yelled “MOOOM” from a part of the house I didn’t know we still owned.
In that exact moment, if you’d asked me to describe 2026 in one word, I would not have said “magical.” I would not have said “abundant.” I would have looked you dead in the eye and said: stressful.
Turns out, I’m not alone. Not even close.
The Survey That Confirmed What We Already Felt in Our Bones
A new survey of 2,000 Americans by Talker Research asked people to pick one word to describe how 2026 has gone so far, and the winner — by a landslide — was stressful (35%), followed closely by challenging (32%).
And here’s the part that surprised me: it wasn’t the younger generations dragging that number up. It was actually older Americans who were most likely to call this year stressful (Gen X 38%, baby boomers 37%, Gen Z 32%, millennials 31%). Which, as a “geriatric millennial mom” watching her own parents try to navigate this rapidly-changing world, makes total sense. The ground keeps shifting under all of us.
The survey also found that the average American has already lived through two “plot twists” this year — those out-of-nowhere life changes that completely torch your tidy little January roadmap. Two! And we’re not even halfway through. (I personally would like to file a formal complaint with the universe.)
A Third of America Is Having an Existential Crisis
Buckle up, because this stat made me put the laundry down: one in three Americans (32%) say they’re currently experiencing an existential crisis. And the breakdown by generation is wild:
- Gen Z: 52%
- Millennials: 39%
- Gen X: 32%
- Baby boomers: 20%
More than HALF of Gen Z is questioning the meaning of everything. If you have a teenager or young adult in your house — like a lot of us Orlando moms do — please go give them a snack and a hug. We are going through it.
The reasons people are spiraling change with age, but they all rhyme:
- Gen Z said their problems feel out of their control to solve, plus career instability (both 40%)
- Millennials pointed to a lack of control over their problems (44%)
- Gen X named lack of control AND financial stress (both 46%)
- Baby boomers said financial stress, full stop (48%)
See the through-line? Control. Or rather, the deeply uncomfortable feeling of not having any. 37% of people said their entire lives feel out of their control — and again, it’s the youngest among us feeling it the worst (52% of Gen Z).
The Money Piece Is Not Subtle
A separate Talker Research survey of 5,000 Americans, conducted on behalf of Current at the end of 2025, helps explain why so many of us feel like we’re white-knuckling our way through life right now.
87% of Americans said the country is in a “crisis” because life has become so unaffordable. Eighty-seven percent. That’s basically everyone.
- 52% said it’s hard to pay their bills on time each month
- 50% have struggled to afford basic groceries
If you’ve ever stood in the Publix aisle, looked at the price of a package of chicken thighs, and quietly recalculated dinner for the entire week — you are not imagining it. You are not bad with money. You are living inside a real, measurable, national squeeze.
So What Do We Actually Do With All This?
Here’s where I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that doom-scrolling stats about how doomed we all feel is, in fact, not a coping strategy.
The article that originally ran this survey featured advice from psychotherapist Leslie Davenport, and her tips are the kind of unflashy wisdom that I needed printed on a sticky note next to my coffee maker. Paraphrasing the highlights:
1. Ground your day with at least one calming routine. A walk outside, time in nature, music, gardening, yoga — anything that’s just for you. (For me? It’s a full hour workout at WEFit before the kids are up.)
2. Curate your media. Davenport said it best: “These days, it’s possible to stay informed without getting overloaded.” Set boundaries around when and how long you let news and messages flood in. You do not have to know every awful thing the moment it happens. Your nervous system will thank you. I gave up the news in 2020 and have never looked back.
3. Make time for your feelings. “Make room for it all: anger, fear, grief and confusion.” This one hit me. We moms are professional feeling-stuffers. We’ve got 14 things to do before bedtime, so we shove the hard stuff down and keep moving. Davenport is saying: stop doing that. Even five minutes of letting yourself actually feel the thing helps.
4. Pursue connection. Community is, in her words, “one of the most underrated sources of resilience we have today.” Text the friend. Say yes to the playdate. Sit on the front porch with the neighbor. We were never meant to do any of this alone.
The Hopeful Plot Twist
Here’s the part of the survey that made me actually smile:
- 32% of Americans said their year has gone better than expected so far
- 27% described 2026 as “hopeful”
- 79% are planning some kind of mid-year reset — mental health (33%), physical (33%), or financial (25%)
So yes, things are heavy. Yes, we’re stressed. Yes, the headlines are a lot. But almost a third of us are over here quietly going, huh, this is actually kind of working out. And 8 out of 10 of us aren’t waiting until January to make a change — we’re doing the reset now.
That, to me, is the most Orlando-mom energy possible. We don’t wait for the perfect Monday. We don’t wait for the new year. We pull our hair into a bun, drink the cold coffee, and start again Tuesday afternoon if we have to.
A Permission Slip From One Tired Mom to Another
If 2026 has felt like a lot — you’re not weak, you’re not failing, and you’re not alone. The data literally says you’re in good company. Most of America is white-knuckling it right beside you.
But here’s what I keep coming back to: we can’t control the economy, the headlines, the price of eggs, our teenagers’ moods, or whatever fresh plot twist is brewing for the back half of the year. What we CAN control is small, beautifully boring stuff. The morning walk. The bedtime that’s actually a bedtime. The friend we text. The notifications we silence. The dinner we don’t cook because we ordered pizza instead.
Small shifts. Stacked up over time. That’s the whole game.
So if you need a sign to do your own little mid-year reset, Orlando — this is it. Pick one thing. Just one. And start there.
We’ve got this. Even when it doesn’t feel like we do.
2026 Research methodology: Talker Research surveyed 2,000 general population Americans with internet access, online, between March 5 and March 8, 2026. The complete methodology, as part of AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, is available on the Talker Research Process and Methodology page.
2025 Research methodology: Talker Research surveyed 5,000 Americans state by state (100 in each state) who plan to file taxes, split evenly by generation (1,250 each of Gen Z, millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers), with internet access. The survey was commissioned by Current and conducted online between Dec. 17, 2025 and Jan. 5, 2026.
