What’s going on? Has this explosion of mental health awareness liberated young people to be “who they truly are”? Or has it trapped them in a culture of fragility, convincing them they are broken or otherwise socially unfit before they’ve even reached adulthood?
The Mental Health Industrial Complex
While more money than ever is being poured into therapy, medication, and mental health services, global mental well-being is declining. This recognized trend is known as the Treatment Prevalence Paradox (TPP): the more we treat, the worse the statistics get.
Suicide rates are climbing. Antidepressant use is soaring. Disability claims for mental illness are up across the West. International studies show that young people, especially those in English-speaking nations, report the lowest mental well-being of any demographic. Despite record spending, the mental health crisis keeps deepening.
We wouldn’t accept this in any other branch of medicine. Cancer outcomes are improving. Heart disease and diabetes mortality are falling. But in mental health, treatment seems to correlate with worsening outcomes. The uncomfortable truth is that our current approach may be part of the problem.