We have to stop turning everything in society into a crisis, Newstalk Breakfast host Ciara Kelly has said.
She was speaking as a new Girlguiding survey in Britain found happiness among girls and young women has hit its lowest level since 2009.
Some 89% of girls and women aged between seven and 21 said they feel generally worried or anxious - compared to 78% back in 2016.
Ciara said every generation has worries they have to deal with.
"We had the CND, 'Ban the Bomb'; I was sure as a young person by the age of 11 that we were going to be facing a nuclear winter any day," she said.
"That was kind of the narrative of the 80s, and the Cold War hadn't ended yet - but I think this is just more catastrophizing.
"I think that's part of the issue; we have climate crises, economic crises, Ukraine crisis - everything's a bloody crisis.
"Housing, health: we can't describe an issue in society without it being an emergency and a crisis.
"Everything is ratcheted up to 11, and that is what we've done to these kids and that's the era that they live in.
"Everything is drama, social media is drama, and everything is sensationalised."
Source: Girlguiding (UK)Ciara said her daughter, who is now 21, has "come through all of the things that are supposed to have robbed her childhood as a perfectly happy well-balanced kid".
"I see all her friends, and I have a house where there are teenagers coming and going every day; they're not all robbed and bereft of childhood.
"We just seem desperate to find problems all the bloody time."
Ciara acknowledged that while anxiety levels may be higher now, "I think everything is reported as worse".
"I don't know whether it's worse or not, but what I do think is I think it's the minority and I think that we catastrophize.
"I'm taking from the children that have anxiety, but I think we have moved into an era in general, in society, where the tail wags the dog.
"So, if there's a minority of people experiencing anything everyone has to sort of sign up that this is the issue," she added.
