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Given the number of "Once in a lifetime events" I as an early 20 year old have lived through, I entirely understand the feeling of everything is going to collapse.

The house is made of cards, and there are people running around trying collect more cards than everyone else - even when those are at the base. Meanwhile, someones turned up the AC at one end of the house and the heater at the other, and we've got weird air currents blowing every which way.

Except you haven't really lived through anything serious at all, compared to previous generations. I find that kind of notion rather embarrassing.

(I mentor highschool students)

I have seen it a lot more of "why even try because our quality of life is going into the toilet" and less of "we are all going to die"

Reminds me of high school in the cold war: "Why bother? The bombs are coming any day!"

That is why I disapprove of all the fear-mongering. I lived through that as a teen, and it was very depressing. I honestly thought I would never see my 30ieth birthday, either because of nukes or because of the hole in the ozone layer.