Youth mental health - an impending, growing crisis

It is a complex issue requiring immediate and sustained attention. The time to act is now.

- Mythily Subramaniam

A few years ago, I sat at my dining table looking at my blood pressure machine in a state of complete shock. My readings were way above normal. I had a few risk factors, but I had a fairly healthy lifestyle, and while life had been stressful due to personal and work-related factors, I did not expect this.

The disbelief lasted all of 15 seconds. I decided to repeat the reading over the next two weeks and take myself to the general practitioner if it persisted. It did, and my physician subsequently prescribed anti-hypertensive medication.

My clinician friends commiserated, but everyone decided I was at that "age", and many of us would eventually have this problem. They were right: A study funded by the World Health Organisation showed that in 2019, the global age-standardised prevalence of hypertension in adults aged 30 to 79 was 32 per cent in women. Closer to home, the National Population Health Survey found self-reported hypertension to be 15 per cent among those aged 18 to 74, increasing to 47.7 per cent among those aged 70 to 74.

I can't help but compare my experience with that of young people dealing with mental health conditions. Many believe that their feelings of anxiety and low mood will go away (and they sometimes do, as not every episode of low mood is a harbinger of depression), so they wait months, or even years, hoping against hope that it is a passing phase.

When they finally gather the courage to talk to their parents, many report that their feelings are dismissed. A young girl told me her mother asked her what made her feel low. Her confession about a broken relationship, body image concerns, and low self-esteem took her mother by surprise.

Her mother had struggled in her life with financial hardships, while providing for her children and parents. If she were resilient enough, she could not understand why her daughter could not overcome these seemingly - at least to her - minor hurdles.