What percent of teens have mental health issues? Mental health issues encompass feelings of anxiety, depressive thoughts, signs of substance abuse, and many other severe mental health problems. Teens today are experiencing a mental health crisis, with record rates of clinically significant sadness or anxiety. In recent years, approximately 4 in 10 teens felt persistently hopeless, and more than a fifth of teens seriously considered ending their lives.
Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems among teens. Rates for depressive disorders and anxiety conditions have been rising steadily since before COVID-19 and have been exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic. Among teens between the ages of 13 and 18, nearly a third (31.9 percent) are affected by an anxiety disorder, while nearly 10 percent of teens are affected by severe clinical depression.
Why are teens at a greater risk of developing these mental health problems than ever before? And what can parents, caregivers, and mental health professionals do to make a difference for teens? Let’s take a look at some of the underlying facts and factors behind teen mental health issues.
Factors Contributing to Teen Mental Health Problems
It’s hard to attribute the increase in risk of mental health problems among teens to a single change or factor. Teens today are just as concerned as ever about things like social status, good grades, and securing a satisfying career. Fundamentally, teens are the same as they’ve ever been. Biologically and socially, some teens are dispositioned towards conditions like anxiety or depression due to factors such as poverty and abuse or a family history of mental health problems.
However, the world has changed. The circumstances under which teens are developing today are affecting them and their mental health.
For one, teens are acutely aware of mental health in general and mental health problems. Surveys show that teens categorically rate mental health problems as a severe issue, more so than poverty, bullying, and gang violence. Teens today are much more likely to talk about things like depression, anxiety, or conditions like ADHD and OCD – and they’re much more likely to identify their negative thoughts and anxious feelings with these conditions.
The prevalence of mental health problems among teens today may be an unintentional side effect of an increased awareness of mental health in general.
While doctors and other medical professionals take great care not to pathologize everyday aspects of the human experience, some research indicates that young people in English-speaking developed countries are less happy. In contrast, young people in developed and developing countries who do not speak English are becoming happier.
This may have something to do with the prevalence of “therapy talk” and mental health as both a topic of discussion in society and a market for content, discourse, and trade. Teens in the Anglosphere may be uniquely positioned to experience a more excellent cycle of negative emotions if they self-identify as depressed or anxious and are less likely to seek out sources of support or find healthy ways to cope with their anxieties or sadness than teens from non-English speaking countries, where discussions and discourse on mental health may be different.
The Impact of Social Media on Teen Mental Health
Smartphones, the Internet, and social media may also be playing a significant role in teen mental health, for good and for ill.
Social media has generally been a boon, especially among marginalized teens. Teens from all over the world can communicate with each other and discuss experiences, thoughts, or feelings that might have alienated them from other people in their lives, whether it’s an atypical gender expression or different racial status in a racially homogenous country.
Millions of teens from the LGBTQ+ community use platforms like YouTube to spread awareness about gender-affirming care, share resources for teens trying to cope with dysphoria while in a country that persecutes transgender people, and give teens who feel alone a sense of belonging through their screens.
On the other hand, social media can negatively impact self-esteem and even feed certain self-harm behaviors, such as eating disorders, especially among teens who primarily use apps like Instagram and TikTok to engage in social comparison or to seek validation through engagement (likes, shares, comments, and so on).
Signs and Symptoms of Mental Health Issues in Teens
Your teen isn’t specifically depressed because they’re spending too much time on YouTube or because they’ve learned to identify their negative thoughts with a textbook diagnosis of a mental health disorder.
But things like negative reinforcement through unrealistic body standards, misinformation, or toxic online discourse, as well as a modern framework for understanding and potentially “treating” the excess of a normal human emotion like sadness or guilt, may contribute to the modern teenage mental health epidemic in the United States.
If you’re worried about your teen’s behavior, whether it’s what they’ve been saying or what they’ve been doing, then ask them how they’ve been doing. Listen to what they’re saying. It’s normal to feel awful after a breakup or to be worried about school. But if their thoughts and actions imply consistent and persistent negative thinking – often irrational negative thinking – then consider asking them about visiting a therapist or psychiatrist together for a professional opinion.
A few red flags to look out for include:
- Signs of self-harm, such as scratches, hiding cuts or bruises, loss of nails due to nail-biting, skin-picking, or hair-pulling.
- A consistent obsession with death, dying, and frequently mentioning what it would be like if they were gone.
- Sudden and extreme changes in diet, especially signs of binging and purging (frequently excusing themselves to vomit, hiding laxatives) or starvation diets and extreme weight loss.
- Extreme changes in behavior, especially violent behavior or dangerous and uncharacteristic risk-taking.
- Physical or behavioral signs of drug use, from track marks and paraphernalia to frequently appearing out of it.
Conclusion
Rising rates of mental health issues among teens highlight a concern that demands attention. The complex interplay of factors such as social media influence, perceptions of mental health and well-being, and evolving societal pressures contributes to this crisis.
Parental intervention and support are crucial to address these challenges and promote mental well-being. Get in touch with your teen’s mental health, talk to them, and seek help together when needed.
