Is it really the case that a majority of Gen Z have experienced mental health problems? Researchers from University College London certainly seem to think so. A YouGov survey they commissioned finds that almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of people aged 16 to 25 have either experienced or are currently experiencing mental health difficulties. Women seem to suffer most: 72 per cent said they had mental health difficulties compared to 56 per cent of young men. Rates are highest among 20 to 21-year-olds: 40 per cent of this age group are currently experiencing difficulties, while 31 per cent have had problems in the past.
Women seem to suffer most: 72 per cent said they had mental health difficulties
Certainly, this aligns with other research. A 2024 study found that 34 per cent of people aged 18 to 24 were dealing with mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, with young women one-and-a-half times as likely to be affected as men. The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service UCAS, reported an astonishing 450 per cent increase in student mental health declarations between 2011 and 2021. And a 2022 survey conducted by Student Minds found that 57 per cent of respondents self-reported a mental health issue, while 27 per cent said they had a formally-diagnosed condition.
If a majority of young adults really do have mental health problems, perhaps we should shut down universities altogether and reopen them as mental hospitals. But I am cynical. The Student Minds research gives a clue as to why. In almost all these surveys, including this week’s YouGov poll, those interviewed are asked to self-declare their problems. When we look exclusively at formally diagnosed conditions, the number of sufferers falls dramatically. This does not mean there is no problem. It is just not the one the researchers claim to have found.
We urgently need to confront the fact that a majority of young people – especially young women – now think they have mental health difficulties. One problem seems to lie in the way emotions are described nowadays. Being worried, nervous, or sad are all part of what it is to be human. But when worrying is labelled ‘anxiety’ and sadness is rebranded as ‘depression’, we move from transient feelings to a more permanent state. Sadly, this can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tell yourself you’re anxious, and you are far more likely to avoid the job interview or party that exercises your social muscles. Yet everywhere young people turn, there are teachers, doctors, and caring professionals ready to confirm their self-diagnosis. More than half a million 18 to 24-year-olds were prescribed antidepressants in 2021-22.
Failing to understand why this is happening will fuel continued high rates of absenteeism from school and from the workplace. The rate of people aged 16–34 who report that their mental health limits their capacity to work has more than quadrupled over the past decade, and nearly one-third of Gen Z workers (around 1.7 million individuals) took time off work for mental health reasons last year. For some, this is not just an odd ‘duvet day’ but a more permanent withdrawal from employment. The Resolution Foundation has found that people in their early 20s are more likely to be out of work because of ill health than those in their early 40s, with mental health the primary cause. On top of this, roughly 70 per cent of new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims among those under 25 are for mental and behavioural disorders.
Smartphones and social media are often blamed for the rise in mental health problems. Yet one thing that’s overlooked in this discussion is the role of algorithms and influencers in promoting mental health problems. Spend time on Instagram or TikTok showing even the slightest interest in your own mental state, and you are soon bombarded with checklists to see if you have autism, online tests for ADHD, how-to-guides for coping with anxiety and blow-by-blow accounts of dealing with depression. People with schizophrenia film their psychotic episodes, and those with bipolar disorder describe their manias. Everything from being the eldest daughter to the middle child becomes a ‘syndrome’.
There’s something seductive about having a diagnosis. Today’s mental health labels act as yesteryear’s horoscopes. Rather than ‘Capricorn rising’ revealing your true personality, ‘high functioning anxiety’ serves the same purpose. There are added attractions too: sufferers get to abdicate responsibility for their own behaviour while being transformed into today’s most noble of all creatures: a victim. On top of this comes the very real incentive of PIP payments and time off work.
Schools and universities compound the rush to label with awareness-raising campaigns and well-intentioned ‘mental health weeks’. Yet the more we talk about mental health, the more we ask people to focus internally rather than just getting out in the world and doing stuff. For this reason, Labour’s plans for mental health counsellors in schools and lessons in ‘resilience’ are likely only to make matters worse. Rather than studying resilience in the classroom, teenagers need Saturday jobs, homework and time to hang out with friends.
We need a proper reckoning – not with a bogus mental health crisis – but with why so many young people today diagnose themselves as suffering from mental health problems. Until this happens, more healthy young lives will be wasted to a false self-perception of incapacity, while those who are truly ill miss out in the stampede for treatment.
Comments