A landmark 2026 Lancet study found that 1.17 billion people were living with a mental disorder in 2023 — a 95.5 percent increase since 1990. Mental disorders have gone from the 12th leading cause of disability globally to the 5th.
The most prevalent conditions are anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia. Young people aged 15 to 19 are disproportionately affected, with anxiety and depression as the leading causes of lost healthy years — hitting females especially hard.
The scale of the crisis is significant. The scale of the response is not. Globally, only 9.1 percent of people with major depression received medically adequate treatment in 2021.
Only seven countries reached a 30 percent treatment rate. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 98 out of every 100 people with major depression receive no adequate care.
The knowledge exists. The crisis is visible. The treatment gap is the emergency. Stronger surveillance, earlier intervention, and inclusive policy are the path forward — not eventually, but now.
I wish there was a way we can make people more mentally resilient before things get even more out of hand; we near to rear a tougher, next generation of people before it’s too late.
I know this term is stigmatising but I believe the word ‘snowflake’ is an adequate description for some peoples mentality ‘a generation of snowflakes’ makes sense but for all the wrong reasons .
You are calling young people who suffer mental illnesses as “snowflakes” which is considered derogatory slang and used in politics to belittle the opposers beliefs. Ai yi yi
no need for shaming, I’d use the term on myself tbh, it describes how a generation of people are not as mentally resilient as the previous. Judge me all you like but mental illness continues to grow and gets passed down to the young, it more of a societal problem.
i was watching this video today that was talking about modern food being nutrient deficient… i think it contributes to it. I personally think a balanced diet with more meat/alternatives in the diet is better… i dont mean carnivore or something like that, i just mean i think modern man probably eats too many carbs/sugar. Excess amount of meat isnt good either. I think the key is balance between them.
Saw this one person talking about how a large percentage of the brain is made up of myelin sheathing (the protective covering of the neurons) and mylein sheathing is largely made from cholesterol. Ive also read that many evolutionary scientists believe that the reason human brains began to grow so large is because of their access to meat (through advanced hunting compared to animals). So if its true that our brains are sick, i think its imperative we have enough meat or alternatives to meat that provide enough fats and proteins to our brains.
google: Schizophrenia is strongly linked to abnormalities in the myelin sheath—the protective, fatty insulation on nerve fibers. This damage disrupts the speed and synchronization of neural signals between brain regions. In schizophrenia, these myelin deficits contribute to the core cognitive impairments and brain connectivity issues characteristic of the disorder. [1, 2, 3, 4]
I will criticize you here. I think kids nowadays have a lot more to stress about. In the past we had to be resilient because there was a strong stigma attached to mental health.
Previous generations were told to tamper down any stress or trauma. This new generation is encouraged to talk about their mental health. I think that’s great. I don’t think they deserve to be called snowflakes for being encouraged to deal with their mental health.
What part of this is pseudo science, Mr. snowflake? Its a scientific fact that modern food is less nutritious due to over-farming the soil. Its also almost certainly scientific fact that humans gained their larger brains from their ability to eat meat. I have no idea what part of this youre referring to.
I guess it would be interesting to know what studies implicate myelin-sheats as a factor in this illness. But maybe it just is that modern way of living promotes mental health problems. Although it is the same problem, where is the evidence and how his phenomenon exactly works anyway. But enshittification of human condition, environment and society in general sounds plausible in any case.
idk, I am still 50/50 about whether its a good idea to talk about it, sometimes we need to deal with things internally as well, sometimes sharing a problem isn’t the answer, I had to work out things myself, I started as a snowflake (susceptible) and I got no therapy at all, just a bunch of pills, now my psyche dr is just trashing everything I have ever had to deal with and not even asking me my side of the story (as if he knows better) lol
You may ask yourself if society is twice as sick as it was in 1990. No, I don’t think so. I think the increase is primarily due to greater awareness and broader diagnostic criteria.
That said, I think a case can be made that the DSM-5-TR (and ICD-11) is, in some cases, pathologizing normal human behavior. The former lists 300 mental disorders and is 1,152 pages long. Examples of controversial diagnoses include: Prolonged Grief Disorder which critics argue places an arbitrary number on a deeply personal healing process; Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder which puts an arbitrary number on 6±year-olds throwing temper tantrums; and Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome which identifies mild, early indicators of psychosis, resulting in young people being given antipsychotics even though only a very small percentage of them progress to psychosis.
Yes, I think awareness and broadening diagnostic criteria is a good thing, but we have to be careful not to pathologize normal human behavior.
i think broken societies cause broken people as well. All the pollution, pesticides, fake foods, nutrient deficient foods, lack of exercise, being indoors etc is making people sick in a number of ways. SZ is just one of those ways. I dont think mental illness is a moral failing. Its a more a circumstantial world issue. Right or wrong, most people are living unhealthy lives cause its all they know, and again its making them sick more often.
A huge pet peeve of mine is when people try to attach blame to illness. I’ve heard so many stories of people’s familys like trying to attach blame and shame to a person being sick like “oh your psychotic cause your lazy, you need to work hard then you’ll be cured” and all kinds of bullshit, that never not once cure sz. I know its said a lot but mental illness is truly the one illenss where you get zero sympathy and everyone thinks they have a cure to fix your “stupidity” like trying different diets etc. Thats not to say a diet cant support good health, but ultimately taking a suppliment or trying a fruit diet or whatever bullshit alone is never once in 10000000 times going to cure anyones sz. Thats my rant for the day lol
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