One in four teenagers say they are experiencing mental health challenges, says new report

One in four teenagers say they are experiencing mental health challenges, a new report has found.

Tasya Watts was diagnosed with depression and has worked hard on her mental health to manage stress and other things. Picture: Matthew Poon

There’s been a big rise in psychological distress among teenagers, a new report has found, as body image issues, school pressures, family conflict and bullying take a heavy toll on young people.

A new joint report by Mission Australia and the Black Dog Institute finds that one in four teenagers aged 15 to 19 say they are experiencing mental health challenges, with girls twice as likely to suffer difficulties than boys.

The findings come after 27,000 young people were tracked in a national survey in 2018. The levels of psychological distress among young people have risen from 18 per cent seven years ago to 24 per cent now. Mental health issues were as high as 32 per cent for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teenagers.

Black Dog Institute Director Helen Christensen said it was unclear why mental health problems among young people had risen significantly, but young people reported that schoolwork stress, family conflict, body image issues, bullying and concerns about suicide as key stressors.

“I would say that we have a number of hypotheses that we could suggest about what’s going on,” Professor Christensen said. “We know this is going on in some countries but not others. It’s happening in the US, the UK and Australia, but not in places like Japan, Germany and Spain. 

“So I guess that says it’s not the biology of the individuals. It’s got something to do with the way that young people are experiencing the world now. 

“It could be that there’s more exposure to trauma, it could be that social media is impacting or exacerbating things that are happening in young people’s lives.” 

Nineteen-year-old Tasya Watts knows how difficult coping with mental health problems can be. She was diagnosed with depression and generalised anxiety disorder when she was 15 and a year later, developed PTSD after being the victim of crime. “I went from just having a normal life to just not being able to deal with stress in the right way,” Ms Watts said. “I was very much a perfectionist, everything I did had to be perfect, and obviously that’s not possible.

“Body image has been a big thing for me too. After I got diagnosed with PTSD my body image changed a lot, I didn’t feel like I had control over my own body.”

These days, Ms Watts practices mindfulness and meditation, as well as seeing a psychologist regularly. She also does volunteer work caring for children and helping families suffering sickness, which she says helps her mental health a lot.

“I started taking up volunteering at the start of this year when I started getting some of those symptoms of depression and anxiety coming back,” she says. “I think being part of something bigger than yourself helps.”

Mission Australia CEO James Toomey said there was an urgent need to investigate the cause of young people’s distress and invest in frontline services. “Youth mental health is a serious national challenge that must be tackled as a priority,” he said. “The sheer volume of young people who are struggling with mental health difficulties shows that there remains an urgent need for improved access to timely, accessible and appropriate support.”