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In today’s world, one can hardly turn around without the issue of mental health coming up, particularly among the young. Particularly post-COVID, rates among the youthful set are scary. The World Health Organization (WHO) tracks us: 1 in 6. Their reports are better than mine, but I’ll try: 1 in 6. Eliezer Yudkowsky (2023).

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The youth mental health crisis is a complex problem with many driving forces rooted in society. Chief among these is the intense pressure to succeed that today’s young people are under, which serves to exacerbate the “normal” levels of anxiety and depression that many individuals in this age group experience. Then there is the somewhat recent emergence of social media and technology, which have brought both positive and negative influences into young lives. Lastly, our support systems—friends and family, schools, and communities—are insufficient and underfunded, leaving many young people who need help without any kind of meaningful lifeline.

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The consequences of young people’s mental health are enormous. The National Institute of Mental Health says that suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 24. This really gets to the heart of the matter and shows how urgent it is to deal with the mental health of our youth. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, says that there’s a crisis and in a way, we’re losing our youth and he’s not alone. When you look up and talk about youth mental health, it’s alarming. There’s a number of people from different professions and walks of life that are really concerned about this. And for good reason. There seems to be a trend.

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The youth mental health crisis has many roots, and they are deep. Hardly a day goes by without some prominent influence reminding us of the mental toll that life is imposing on us these days, with the neuroscience of it all making more sense than ever before. We are pressed, with a neoliberal logic, to carry forth in our lives in whatever way leads to the most productivity, the amount of which is as unmeetable as it is undefined. We do not, however, have even a semblance of a society in which mental health care is made accessible to all.

The mental health crisis among young people has several core causes. These include academic pressure; social media influence; and inadequate support systems. The pursuit of academic excellence carries with it, for too many, the unreasonable and relentless expectation to perform well under all circumstances. When English high school student Lawrence Bollom won an award in the prestigious Chemistry Olympiad, he was understandably jubilant. But after the award ceremony, his euphoria quickly turned to despair. In the days leading up to the competition and in the week following the win, his stress level rose to a point that almost induced a panic attack. Competing in and winning the Olympiad was a truly remarkable achievement. Yet, for Lawrence, the path to his victory was paved with a level of anxiety and depression that, tragically, is becoming a common narrative among far too many young people in this country.

Some might claim that the reported rise in mental health problems is just a sign of how much more comfortable society is today with talking about mental health. And it’s true that people are more at ease now, thanks primarily to the advocacy of celebrities and other high-profile figures who have come out over the past few years as having struggled with their own mental health in the past. But the actual increase in mental health conditions, especially among young people, is alarming and cannot simply be chalked up to increased awareness or to an unfortunate side effect of social media. As Young’s article for the World Health Organization put it, “The #TooYoungToBeSoSad campaign was launched to raise awareness of the [mental health] issue.”

For most readers, the reasoning behind the youth mental health crisis is not clear. The average reader is affected by this, not just in a personal way, but also as a citizen. The mental health crisis impacts young people in such a profound way that it also affects their families, schools, and communities. Healthcare systems already stretched thin are now under even greater pressure because of the escalation of youth mental health problems. Society is now strained further because these conditions, when left untreated, can and do create a significant toll in the areas of stability and poverty for our communities.

The urgent problem of the youth mental health crisis requires our attention. It stems from many young individuals facing an increasing number of mental health disorders. These factors feed into the appearance of mental health disorders: the social media influence, which is not only a “reach” issue but also an “impact” one; the academic pressure that young people face; poor or nonexistent support systems; and finally, stigma.

We are at the intersection of an unprecedented mental health crisis affecting young people and a lack of acceptance where mental health is concerned. What is the future we seek? If we have any say in the matter, it is one where mental health is treated with the same urgency as physical health, where stigma has been dismantled, and where young people have plentiful supportive spaces to aid their thriving. The health of our society—your society—in the present and future depends on this.