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Youth mental health issues have seen an alarming upswing in recent years. In just the past decade, the number of young people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses has increased substantially, and these mental health conditions have brought on significant levels of suffering and distress. The surge in youth mental health conditions has affected all segments of society, but the increases have been most striking among certain groups of young people. The most devastating dimension of this issue is the number of young people who are taking their own lives or who are making serious attempts to end their lives.

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This article will contend that youth mental health is in a crisis that demands the completely socio-political attention it has thus far received. It will explain why, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgency among even experts to deal with this crisis has intensified. It will look at some of the statistics behind the two-decade-long deteriorating mental health of our country’s young people, who might now be the most afflicted in our nation’s history, and suggest causes and contributors to this sad state of affairs.

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The mental health crisis among the young is rooted in many factors, complex and interwoven, that come with today’s society. Mental health is going downhill for youth, and some researchers are looking at social media’s role in this decline. Alexandra A. Hershenson, PhD, and a research team at the Young Adult and Adolescent Behavioral Health Center at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital have published findings on this matter. They looked at the association of the use of social media with various risk factors for suicide in various study populations. Their work builds on what has already been learned about the link between the use of social media and the anxiety and depression observed in middle- and high-school adolescents. Indeed, in a research article detailing their own work for the journal Pediatrics, Hershenson and her colleagues noted that in 2017, “5.5% of adolescents in the United States [were] experiencing a major depressive episode, a 60% increase from 2007.”

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Students are confronted with strict standards and expectations and are rigorously pushed to perform at the highest academic level. A report from the American Psychological Association (APA) indicates that 45% of high school students feel stressed out of their minds due to schoolwork. The report further states that chronic stress and burnout are being seen among students at alarming rates. Despite the maturing conversations around mental health, accessing resources remains a staggering problem for many young people living with mental health issues. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), only half of the youth in America suffering from a mental health disorder receive any sort of treatment. Worryingly, these underserved young people can be at a heightened risk of self-harm.

Some might contend that the surge in mental health issues being reported is simply the outcome of more people knowing about and being willing to talk about mental health. For a long time, mental health was a topic that few people discussed openly, except in certain circumstances. The conversation is shifting, but is that shift driving the appearance of an actual increase in the number of people diagnosed with mental health issues? Or are mental health disorders truly on the rise among Americans, and especially among our young people? The data isn’t pretty. According to the CDC, “In 2019, 16.5% of U.S. residents were estimated to have a mental illness.”

The mental health crisis among the young is an urgent issue. Mental health is deteriorating among youth, and new evidence suggests that this is largely due to the effects of factors such as social media, academic pressure, and stigma. These stressors seem to blend and intensify, creating an environment in which mental health can be compromised. The statistics are concerning. Between 2012 and 2019, the number of people aged 5-19 with mental health conditions that are deemed to be severe increased by 75%. These strains on young people’s minds have far-reaching implications for their future and for society at large. And right now, action is required to change course and support the youth of today in achieving good and healthy mental states.