A pioneering study has found that the prevalence of severe mental disorders among young Australians has increased by nearly two-thirds over 15 years. Suicidal thoughts have more than doubled.
The research, led by the Matilda Centre at the University of Sydney, is the first to compare diagnostic data for many mental health conditions.
National, self-reported surveys between 2007 and 2022 reveal the prevalence of mental disorders in those aged 16 to 24 has surged from 23.4 per cent in the first survey to 36.2 per cent – about a 54 per cent relative increase.
The largest growth occurred in mental disorders classified as “severe”, from 14.7 per cent to 24 per cent.
“What we saw was quite a big jump in young people who are… quite severely impaired by their mental disorder symptoms across a range of different domains in their life,” says Tim Slade, director of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Matilda Centre, who explains it’s not just a slight increase in low-level stress or anxiety.
“Just over one in three young people meet criteria for an anxiety disorder, or a mood disorder, or a substance use disorder.”
There was an overall decline in alcohol use, but drug use disorders remained stable and were more likely to be of higher severity.
The research notes increases were not driven by greater awareness, lower reporting thresholds or COVID-19 alone, as rates were accelerating well before the pandemic.
Not just ‘snowflakes’
As part of the research, a youth advisory board was assembled to canvass the opinions of young people.
“I can put my middle-aged lens on it,” Slade says, “but that really doesn’t hit the important issues that young people are facing … it’s really important to get the voices of young people and understand what is most important to them.”
Student Georgie Berry, 22, is a member of the youth advisory board. In an essay as part of the research, Berry rejects the assessment of the younger generation as “snowflakes” and argues that the increasing severity of mental health disorders in the cohort is due to a worsening cost-of-living crisis and higher rates of loneliness.
“This is quite a logical response to an illogical social landscape that we’re facing,” Berry says. “We need to reassess what is reasonable to expect of young people. Otherwise… we’re being set up to fail.”
When discussing the result with peers, Berry heard a common response: “If I could afford my groceries, of course I’d be less stressed.”
Rather than a single cause, the youth advisory board highlights multiple contributing factors, including economic and housing insecurity, lingering post-COVID impacts, climate anxiety, sedentary lifestyles and social media.
The findings aren’t surprising to Nicola Palfrey, head of clinical practice at Headspace. Palfrey believes the surge in reporting of severe mental illnesses is a combination of young people being more willing to come forward for assessment and their conditions getting worse.
“You’ve got more people being more open about it, and you’ve probably got more people also who are experiencing more distress and stress … Both things are true,” Palfrey says.
“There is quite a lot of pressure and negativity on young people today, and they’re expected to still be thriving when previous generations have put them in this position.”
The youth advisory board describes social media as a “double-edged sword”. Palfrey says it can become an easy scapegoat for a complex issue.
“It goes back in time to pinball machines, or colour television, or video games,” she says.
“There was always something adults say that young people should just not do and then they’d be OK.”
How to help
Palfrey recommends keeping an open dialogue with young people, seeking formal help through free services such as Headspace or psychologists, self-directed skills and management can help.
“Learning skills to help support yourself are not sexy necessarily, but they work,” she says.
Slade notes prevention is also key.
“We know from other data that nearly two-thirds of all cases of mental disorder start before the age of 25,” he says. “And if we’re seeing this sort of surge in prevalence, we might just need to refocus our attention on things like prevention and early intervention so that we can get in before these problems are entrenched.”
Ultimately, Berry believes work needs to be done to address underlying causes: “We need to give young people the relief they need to actually be able to give their mental health the attention it requires. People always say, ‘OK, well, everyone’s getting by,’ but … we shouldn’t be surviving, we should be thriving.”
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Abby Seaman is a digital producer and lifestyle writer at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
