The Silent Mental Health Crisis - The Atlantic

What if I told you there is an age group that is more depressed, more anxious, and more lonely than any other in America?

You might think I’m talking about teenagers. Mood disorders, self-harm, and suicide have become more common among teens in recent years. Many articles report that social media is toxic for teenage girls in particular, eroding their self-esteem and leaving them feeling disconnected. You might also think about older adults, often portrayed in popular culture and media commentary as isolated and unhappy, whose health is declining and whose friends are drifting apart.

You might be surprised to learn the results of a Harvard Graduate School of Education survey on mental health in the United States: Young adults are the ones most in crisis. Even Richard Weissbourd, who led the 2022 study, was surprised. His team found that 36% of participants aged 18 to 25 reported anxiety and 29% reported depression, about double the proportion of 14- to 17-year-olds on each measure. More than half of young adults worried about money, felt that the pressure to succeed was harming their mental health, and thought their lives lacked meaning or purpose. In fact, adolescents and older adults are the two populations with the lowest levels of anxiety and depression, according to Weissbourd’s research.

Other studies of young adults have similarly alarming results. According to the CDC, in 2020, depression was most prevalent among 18- to 24-year-olds (and least prevalent among 18- to 24-year-olds). French: Frenchprevalent among those 65 and older). A 2023 Gallup poll found that loneliness peaks between the ages of 18 and 29. And, according to a meta-analysis spanning four decades, more young adults reported feeling lonely each year. When Weissbourd repeated his survey last year, anxiety and depression among young adults had also increased, reaching 54 and 42 percent, respectively. Yet young adults’ struggles have gone largely unnoticed. When Weissbourd received his data, “it was really shocking,” he told me. “What’s going on here? And why aren’t we talking about it more?”

The transition from adolescence to adulthood has long been a daunting one: You’re expected to figure out who you are, to build your life. It can feel exciting, like all the doors are open, but more often than not, it’s stressful, and modern challenges make it harder. Young adults are more vulnerable than ever, but much of American society doesn’t see them that way.

Jennifer Tanner takes aim at the idea that early adulthood is a carefree time. Many people see it as a golden age, when you’re old enough to have agency but young enough to be free of big responsibilities. But it’s often the opposite: you have new obligations but not the wisdom, support, or funds to take them on. Jennifer Tanner is a developmental researcher who studies “emerging adulthood,” usually defined as the years 18 to 29. She believes that many older adults wish they could go back to that time and do things differently; in hindsight, it can seem like a golden age of possibility. “Everybody who’s 40 thinks, I wish I was 18.” Meanwhile, young adults are “like, The world is on my shoulders and I have no resources“, she told me. We manipulate them all the time.”

Of course, being a teenager is not easy either. Depression and anxiety are The prevalence of depression is increasing among teens. But in high school, you’re more likely to have people watching you, noticing if you’re upset at home or not showing up at school. Adults know they need to protect you, and they have the power to do so, Weissbourd said. But after high school or college, you may not have anyone looking out for you. Your school friends may be scattered to different locations, and you may not be around your family. If you’re not regularly present at your workplace, you may disappear from the public eye. And if life is getting to you, mental health resources can be hard to come by, Tanner told me, because psychologists tend to specialize in childhood or adolescence. Or adult services, which are generally aimed at older people.

Read: The Real Reason Young Adults Seem Slow to “Grow Up”

As soon as you become independent, you need to find a place to live, land a satisfying job, and connect with a community. But achieving these adulthood goals is becoming increasingly difficult. College tuition has skyrocketed, and many young people are saddled with student loans. With or without that debt, finding a place to live can seem impossible, given the current shortage of affordable housing. In 2022, half of renters spent more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities—a precarious situation when you haven’t yet built up any savings. In an era of increasing financial stress, finding fulfilling work can take a back seat to paying the bills, Weissbourd said. But that can mean missing out on a career that gives you a sense of self-worth and meaning. Jillian Stile, a clinical psychologist who works with young adults, told me that many of her clients “feel like failures.”

Moreover, the social worlds that young people once occupied are collapsing. In the recent past, young adults were more likely to marry and have children than they are today. They make friends with other relatives or coworkers, or both. They typically belong to a religious congregation. Today, they marry and start families later, if at all. Those with office jobs are more likely to work remotely or have coworkers who do, making it difficult to find friends or mentors through work, Pamela Aronson, a sociologist at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, told me. Rates of religious participation have plummeted. Americans in general are spending more time alone and have fewer public places to hang out and chat with strangers. For young adults who haven’t yet established social routines, the decline in in-person gatherings can be especially stark. “Until you build these new systems around you that you contribute to and that in turn contribute to your health and well-being,” Tanner told me, “you’re on shaky ground.”

Read: The New Era of Endless Parenting

Sources of support inevitably change. Today, for example, more and more young people receive support (emotional and financial) from their parents; 45% of 18-29 year-olds live with their parents. But this can be isolating if you don’t have friends nearby. Family ties, as wonderful as they are, are no substitute for a peer group who are going through this sometimes scary phase of life at the same time.

Without a sense of belonging, the world can seem bleak. In Weissbourd’s study, 45 percent of young adults said they “feel like things are falling apart,” 42 percent said gun violence in schools was weighing them down, 34 percent said the same about climate change, and 30 percent said they feared political leaders were incompetent or corrupt. These issues aren’t unique to young adults, but they can be especially bleak if you have no idea what your life will look like in 10 years. As for “anxiety and depression,” Weissbourd told me, “it’s not just about the past, it’s also about how you imagine your future.” And young adults? “They have no hope.”

A difficult early adulthood can cast a shadow over the rest of a person’s life. Aronson reminded me that, on average, millennials have “less wealth than their predecessors at the same age, because their incomes were lower, because they started working during a recession.” Gen Z spends more of its money on essentials than millennials did at their age. That doesn’t bode well for Gen Z’s finances going forward. And there are other concerns: Maybe if you can’t afford a fulfilling job when you’re young, you’ll move into a career that doesn’t interest you and end up feeling stuck. Maybe if you don’t make real friends in early adulthood (a time when people typically form lasting relationships), you’ll feel lonelier in middle age. And if you rely exclusively on your parents, what will you do when they die?

It’s clear that leaving young adults to deal with social obstacles alone isn’t working. “I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem with therapy or medication,” Weissbourd, a therapist himself, told me. He wants to see more “social infrastructure”: Libraries could host classes, volunteer opportunities, or craft sessions that are open to people of all ages but that allow isolated young people to feel part of something. Doctors could ask young patients about loneliness and offer resources to connect them with others. Colleges could assign a counselor to students for all four years and offer classes to guide them through the big questions about their place in the world. (Weissbourd teaches a course at Harvard called “Becoming a Good Person and Living a Good Life.”) Aronson suggested that companies run mentoring programs for young employees. And of course, student loan forgiveness, government support for higher education, affordable housing, and expanded mental health coverage wouldn’t hurt.

First, older people must recognize this crisis. Seeing young people as worthy of empathy means understanding today’s challenges, but it can also involve remembering one’s own youth as it really was and finding compassion for one’s past. While older people may have regrets, They probably did the best they could with the perspective and resources they had. And they could remind the young adults around them that even bad choices can lead to a life that, while imperfect, includes real moments of joy, accomplishment, and self-knowledge. If our culture idealized this growth a little more and the golden glow of youth a little less, young adults might feel less alone in their plight. They might even look forward to what lies ahead.