Subodh Khanal

Anxiety and depression are twice as common in young adults as in teens, according to a new survey by Harvard University's Making Caring Common project. Thirty-six percent of young adults aged 18 to 25 reported anxiety, compared with 18 percent of younger teenagers, while 29 percent felt depression. Many of these young adults launched a career or entered college amid a pandemic and turbulent economy, grappling with high housing prices, a lack of connection in the workplace, world disasters, misinformation exacerbated by social media, and an epidemic of loneliness across generations. Madeline Armstrong, 22, experienced suicidal depression, anorexia, and anxiety during college, culminating in psychiatric hospitalization in her junior year. She and her peers are tackling these challenges with fewer resources for support than younger teens, who have multiple daily contacts with parents, caregivers, teachers, and mentors in their schools. While public health and attention have focused on the crisis of mental health among teenagers since the pandemic, 20-somethings have received less attention and fewer resources. Several worries affected the mental health of young adults, including finances (56%), pressure to achieve (51%), a lack of direction (50%), and a sense of things falling apart (45%). Gender had an effect, with more women reporting mental health challenges (41% (anxiety) and 35% (depression) than men (31% and 24%). Race had an impact, with white young adults facing the highest rates of anxiety (38%), followed by Hispanic, Black, and Asian American young adults (37, 35, and 20 percent, respectively).