Youth mental health has significantly declined in the past few decades.
I think that we really are gaslighting young people.
We're telling them they should be fine.
‘We made it through,’ you know?
‘This is just the teen years; it's hard.’
But they're facing a different world than we did.
So what’s going on with young people’s mental health?
While the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in mental health issues,
rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts had already been on the rise
during the previous decade.
In 2009, about 14% of young people were
reporting serious thoughts of suicide while they were in high school.
And by 2019, it was about 19% of young people.
Suicide deaths were also increasing over the past 2 decades.
So going into the pandemic, we were already seeing pretty concerning trends.
This is Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth.
They’re a psychiatrist and the chief medical officer at the Jed Foundation,
a nonprofit dedicated to improving youth mental health.
Through her work as a psychiatrist and review of available data,
Dr. Erickson-Schroth has seen these trends worsen since the pandemic hit.
We were seeing that, in a lot of studies,
the rates of anxiety and depression for young people were doubling.
In the past year, from 2020 to 2021,
which is when we have the latest data,
suicide rates for young people 15 to 24 actually increased by 7%.
It's clear that young people are in crisis,
and that’s due to a number of societal elements that are out of their control.
One such factor is the prevalence of social media.
We know that comparisons, especially among teen girls,
can really be detrimental to their mental health.
They're seeing, you know, every day on the news and their social media feeds,
wars around the world.
They're seeing social injustice in our country and the fight against it.
They know about the climate crisis, and they're dealing with
kind of existential issues at a really young age.
We also know that these increased amounts of data
that young people are exposed to
are changing the way their brains work.
Still, for all the harm they do, social media platforms can help young people’s mental health.
There's some really positive things about social media.
So there are young people, especially in rural areas,
who don't have access to in-person interactions.
They may be LGBTQ. They may be youth of color in white towns.
And having social media and
being able to access other young people, as well as adults,
who can influence them in positive ways and provide community is great.
That access to outside support systems is especially important
for those who experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide.
American Indian and Alaska Native youth are at increased risk of suicide
compared to other groups.
We also know that Black youth have the fastest-increasing rates of suicide among youth in our country.
One of the things that we observed prior to the pandemic
was that for African Americans, suicide death rates were increasing.
And that included for young children, those age 5 to 11.
This is Dr. Rheeda Walker,
a psychologist and researcher, as well as the author of ‘The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health.’
Racism and discrimination are connected to all of these
different mental health outcomes, whether we realize it or not.
And interestingly, racial microaggressions have showed
a consistent connection to decreases in cognitive ability, and function, and performance.
I would say that one of the, you know, the biggest systemic issues facing our society right now
and facing youth right now is systemic racism in our country.
Young people of color are seeing on TV and on their news feeds
people of color being beaten on the street by police.
And this is really affecting and traumatizing them.
Despite being at greater risk than their white peers of experiencing anxiety and depression,
youth of color don’t have equal access to care and treatment.
In addition to youth of color experiencing mental health issues at increased levels,
LGBTQ+ youth also face high rates of depression and anxiety.
A lot of research shows that LGBTQ young people tend to have
about 3 times the rate of suicide attempts of other young people.
And they're getting messages from all around them.
They're seeing the ‘Don't Say Gay’ bills.
They're seeing the bans on treatment for young people who are trans
who are looking to transition.
And there've even been families that I've known who have moved states
to get away from, you know, the kinds of discriminatory laws that are happening.
Where young people live also matters.
We know that rural youth actually are at 2 times
the risk of suicide as urban youth.
And there are a number of factors having to do with that.
One of them is isolation, and the other is that they have increased access to lethal means, to guns.
Research shows that suicide rates are lower in states with stricter gun safety laws.
We also know that finances really affect people's mental health.
So if you look back during times of recessions,
there are increased suicide rates.
And studies show that when people are in sort of dire financial straits,
are in debt, they have higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts.
So how do we help youth in crisis?
I think what we're missing for young people is the ability
to really delve into their emotions and talk about coping skills.
Parents can really be role models in that.
We can all play some role, even if it is just to listen and, and not offer advice,
but to say, ‘I'm here for you no matter what.’
And to resist any urge to say, ‘Well, when I was your age, this is how I dealt with it.’
Schools also play a key role.
We know that young people that are more connected to their schools
have better mental health outcomes, and you really have to have
a systematized approach.
Schools should make sure that they have places for young people to find community.
We have to make sure that schools have funding for counselors and that the
counselors are permitted to speak with students about important issues.
We have to make sure that everyone that works at schools has training
in youth mental health issues.
For schools to be able to make these changes, though, they need support from local and state governments.
School boards and superintendents can get involved to make sure
that their districts have really comprehensive approaches
to youth mental health.
And we need to make sure that on a state level, we're protecting youth mental health.
While parents, schools, and governments all play important parts,
Dr. Erickson-Schroth says the root causes of these issues need to be addressed to truly create change.
The most important thing, I think, we need to do to improve youth mental health
is to make people's lives better.
We know that social safety nets—things like Medicaid,
housing, making sure people have access to food, education, those kinds of programs—
really change people's lives and make their mental health better.
We know, from state data, you know, that the states that have minimum wages
that are higher have better health among their citizens.
So we know that these sort of social programs are the most important, key thing.
I think sometimes we want to say we can address mental health
specifically by just, you know, implementing mental health programs,
but we actually have to be starting from the ground up.
We have to make sure that everybody has a life that's worth living.