Is young people's mental health getting worse?

By Kamila Monroy

Is young people’s mental health is getting worse? According to CAMHS (Child and Adolescents Mental Health Services) in the past 2 years in England, it has doubled the help that teenagers seek for any mental disorder such as anxiety and depression. Researchers found that the proportion of under 16-year-olds experiencing any mental disorder had risen from 11.6% to 13.4% between 1999 to 2017. Older teenagers were surveyed and the data suggested that young women around the ages of 17 to 19 were 2⁄3 more likely than younger girls and 2x as likely as their male peers, to experience poor mental health.

There is a notorious rise in teenagers that themselves accept they have disorder according to National surveys conducted every year in England (known as self-reported conditions). Researchers couldn’t find a rise on the numbers of psychological distress when given a formal psychiatric exam. It is proved that young people are more likely to say they have difficulties with their mental health, in England there has also been an almost doubling of hospital admissions for self-harm between girls. “A surprisingly number of people harm themselves quite severely but never go to a hospital” this words were mentioned by Prof Ford, stress among teengers can lead to harming themselves as a way “of escaping”. But, they are solutions such as, talking to your parents, teacher, psychologist, or any other person that you trust.