It’s easy to look at the current conversation around young people and conclude that stress and anxiety are significantly worse now than ever before. The data tells a more complicated story.

While it is clear that too many of today’s teens are struggling, and about 21% of adolescents today report anxiety symptoms, national data from the early 2000s already showed that nearly one in three adolescents met criteria for an anxiety disorder back then. Some global studies also suggest that adolescent anxiety has remained relatively stable or shifted only a little over longer time spans.

What seems to have changed most dramatically is not simply how stressed out or anxious young people are, but how visible that has become, how quickly it is named, discussed, and brought into the open. For example, diagnosed teen anxiety has risen in the past decade. But this could be due to expanded insurance coverage for mental health, pediatric screening, and growing awareness in schools and communities, not simply the result of a clear rise in disorders.

For example, I’m sure some kids I knew had therapists when I was growing up, but just like no kids were openly LGBT+ at my high school, almost no one I knew talked about their mental health. But that sure didn’t mean we were a community without struggles. Today, the mental health landscape looks very different. My students regularly raise their hands and ask to leave early for therapy appointments, they casually book rooms at school to Zoom with their counselors, and they linger outside one of our three mental health provider’s offices waiting for their turn to chat. In addition to these providers our dedicated student support team is also made up of health teachers, nurses, and learning specialists. Plue, we now use part of our high school health curriculum to train high schoolers in the teen Mental Health First Aid program. While stigma certainly still exists, these are just a few signs to me that we sure have come a long way.

Certainly, the teens I work with talk a lot about stressors. School, family dynamics, friendships, the college process, and increasingly the state of the world, are pretty common themes. I sometimes ask my classes what life would look like without stress. Many students initially imagine endless relaxation: sleeping in, lounging on the beach, or playing video games all day. But when we dig deeper and they list what matters most to them, like their families, friendships, school, sports, creative pursuits, they quickly recognize that all of those things come with some degree of stress. And when asked if they would give those things up in exchange for a completely stress-free life, the answer is almost always no. 

Some young people also find that stress helps them stay on top of their work, practice their instruments, or prepare for a big game or performance. Psychologists refer to this as eustress—a positive, short-term form of stress that can enhance performance and support growth.  As Kelly McGonigal writes in her book, The Upside of Stress, the very things that cause us stress are also often the things that give our lives meaning. But for others, stress is overwhelming and harmful.

The goal, then, is balance: enough eustress to keep young people engaged, but not so much that they become stuck or burned out. Greater openness to seeking help creates opportunities for early intervention, preventing everyday stress from escalating into crisis. And when crises do emerge, knowing what to do to help young people access support without defaulting to a damaging narrative about how kids today are less resilient or more at risk than were previous generations is an important part of building a healthier, more responsive system of care. This is care that meets young people where they are, recognizes the real pressures they face, and equips them with the tools and relationships they need to adapt, recover, and thrive.

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Ellen Friedrichs, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this post with:

Talking About Sexual Violence? Strive for a Trauma-Informed Lens by Ellen Friedrichs (microblog)

Good Sexual Citizenship: How to Create a (Sexually) Safer World by Ellen Friedrichs (book)