Our Adolescents are in a Mental Health Crisis Right Now. Here’s What’s Happening, and What is Causing it.

Let’s talk about youth mental health. You may be feeling uncomfortable at the mention of this topic due to the stigma surrounding it, but let’s look at some statistics that show why we must talk about this topic now.

• In recent years, the rates of anxiety and depression have drastically risen among adolescents. 3.2 million (13%) US adolescents said they had experienced at least one major depressive episode, and of that, nearly 2.4 million are girls (one-in-five girls).

• Adolescent suicide rate has risen by 34% for boys and 82% for girls, making it the 3rd leading cause of death among the group.

• Less than 40% of youths with mental health needs receive professional help, and racial/ethnic minority youths are more likely to have unmet mental health needs compared with their non-Latino white counterparts.

These numbers do not do justice to the suffering of each individual youth affected. The poet Shane Koyczan realized this and took it upon himself to write poetry and share his story and the stories of those around him.
He

Was a broken branch

Grafted onto a different family tree

Adopted

Not because his parents opted for a different destiny

He was three when he became a mixed drink

Of one part left alone

And two parts tragedy

Started therapy in 8th grade

Had a personality made up of tests and pills

Lived like the uphills were mountains

And the downhills were cliffs

Four fifths suicidal

A tidal wave of anti depressants

And an adolescence of being called popper

One part because of the pills

Ninety nine parts because of the cruelty

He tried to kill himself in grade ten

When a kid who could still go home to mom and dad

Had the audacity to tell him “get over it” as if depression

Is something that can be remedied

By any of the contents found in a first aid kit.

So why is this happening? Let’s look at one of the biggest changes in our lives that caused a spike in youth depression and anxiety rates——Covid 19.

During Covid, teens were being locked at home 24/7 without being able to interact with anyone other than their parents in-person. Although one may argue that they often still talked to friends via social media, studies have shown that this is not the same as in-person interactions. In-person interactions allow for a deeper sense of connection, empathy, and understanding compared to online communication, which may feel more detached and superficial. This is why older teens are among the group that experienced most loneliness during lock-down. Isolation and loneliness result in increased risk of depression.

Another byproduct of the pandemic was the significant increase in the use of social media. Social media is very harmful for mental health in two main ways. The first is the algorithm that social media uses. Social media platforms use algorithms that will provide you with endless personalized suggestions on your home feed so you can stay “hooked” on the content and never get bored or reach an end to what you can explore. This makes people use the platforms extensively and become addicted.

This addiction triggers an abnormal amount of dopamine (a type of neurotransmitter that gives you a sense of pleasure). Using social media causes your brain to release dopamine at a higher level than usual, which leads to dopamine deficiency in people’s brains. This results in health conditions such as Parkinson's disease and depression. The other aspect of social media that is profoundly harmful is its promotion and the romanticizing of mental illnesness. Social media is continuously exposing adolescents to content related to suicide and self-harm, and redefining depression to be something beautiful and mysterious, which leads to people who are “wannabe depressed”. Adolescents exposed to this would view and post black and white photos of self-harm, which eventually leads to them believing and feeling they are depressed and becoming just that.

Adolescent mental health is in a crisis right now. We need to work together to help our youth, which is the goal of Solis, a youth-led mental health advocacy non-profit charity. We can start by using less social media and being open-minded about the topic.