We live in anxious times. If it is not Trump merrily torching the economy with tariffs, it is most of the Opposition proudly deciding that democracy is best served by screaming at or walking out on female colleagues.
Yet the World Happiness Index tells us we remain a stubbornly happy bunch.
The latest ranking shows us as the 15th-happiest country of 147. However, happiness levels are significantly lower among those under 30.
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has reported “worrying” levels of mental health among school-aged adolescents. Nearly 29 per cent rated their mental health as “bad” or “very bad”, more than a third reported having self-harmed at some point in their lives, and about 11 per cent disclosed having attempted suicide.
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In contrast, a study by Aware of adults over 65 showed that a third show mild to moderate depressive symptoms, while two-fifths of respondents scored within the range for mild to moderate anxiety. The majority of older people fell into the mild category.
It is more than just teenage angst versus older people’s greater maturity and wisdom. Depression and anxiety among young people are much worse than in older generations.
This is despite young people growing up with the idea that mental health issues are something to discuss, not hide. Online, they are constantly exposed to mental health influencers casually tossing around terms such as “narcissism”, “trauma” and “dissociation”.
As a teacher, it was discombobulating to hear teenagers discuss mental health as though they had swallowed the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Therapy-speak or Insta-therapy is not just painful to listen to but can lead to dubious self-diagnoses. However, therapy-speak should not be confused with therapy. Counselling by a wise, compassionate and kind professional can change the trajectory of people’s lives for the better.
But parents can also pathologise normal adolescent behaviour. I was impressed when I met the founders of a large south Co Dublin counselling practice, who told me that before they see any adolescent, they talk to the parents.
Sixty per cent of the time, they never see the teenager, because the parents often just need reassurance that they and the child have the inner resources to survive this stage.
That leaves 40 per cent who do need an intervention, usually brief. They are fortunate enough to be able to afford to access it.
In the Dáil this February, Minister of State with responsibility for mental health Mary Butler announced that mental health funding had increased to €1.5 billion.
She also said she was not happy that 600 children were on waiting lists for more than a year for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs). In 2022, 540 young people were waiting more than a year.
Butler was followed by TDs talking about how some young people cannot even get on a Camhs waiting list, or detailing other serious deficiencies in their constituencies.
[ Why are today’s children so full of anxiety?Opens in new window ]
Due to a recruitment crisis, young people in desperate need of help are not receiving it.
World Autism Awareness Day was marked this week. Having watched friends age before my eyes as they seek help for their autistic children, I have little patience with the notion that autism is being overdiagnosed.
People cannot even get a diagnosis for their children and then, everything from school places to speech therapy becomes a battle.
ADHD is perhaps more likely to be overdiagnosed, particularly among young boys or those who spend too much time online, which is most young people.
But something can be both overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. Many girls can live in a quiet hell of never understanding why their brains let them down all the time.
Seeking out good therapy can be life-changing and sometimes even life-saving. However, it remains an individual solution. Although it can do a great deal to develop healthier coping strategies, It cannot address structural issues.
For example, I was struck by a wellbeing flyer designed to help teachers prioritise self-care.
It had 30 suggestions ranging from documenting little successes during the day to seeking counselling. They were all fine but completely failed to address the crushing workload that is leading so many teachers to burn out. All the coping skills in the world cannot fix that reality.
Overprotected in childhood and underprotected from a chaotic online world, facing uncertainty about everything from their identity to their prospects of ever owning a home, it is little wonder that our young people are so depressed and anxious.
Mind you, older people’s mental health is not better because they grew up in some kind of Hibernian paradise. Life in Ireland was grim for many. For generations, emigration was a safety valve for a floundering economy, without even online communication to fall back on.
However, expectations were lower. No one sought suffering but no one was surprised by it. Our children are shocked by and often unprepared for setbacks. Even though older people faced challenges, growing up in a world where using the word dissociation might have led to puzzled queries as to whether you were contemplating leaving the GAA, was not necessarily a bad thing.
