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Gabby Scollard Author Gabby Scollard is pictured on May 22, 2026. (CTV Atlantic \/ Emma Convey) <\/p>\nOver the last decade there has been an alarming increase in youth anxiety. <\/p>\n
Anxiety and mental health diagnoses continue to rise in children and youth and experts are calling it a global crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne in four, or one in five \u2013 approximately between 20 to 25 percent of young people \u2013 are diagnosed with a mental health condition at any given time. But with mental health a lot of times it\u2019s not curing that, it\u2019s treating it as a lifelong challenge,\u201d says Michael Cooper, Mental Health Research Canada Data and Partnerships vice president. <\/p>\n
Mental wellness expert Julie Cass says she has noticed a few things over the past ten years that are impacting the mental health of young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing is as parents we are more stressed out. Our home environments are more stressed out; kids absorb that energy. In fact, they absorb energy more than they absorb words, so they feel that,\u201d says Cass. <\/p>\n
Cass explains there is a lot more being thrown at children these days, which means adults need to do a lot more to help them regulate.<\/p>\n
Cooper says it\u2019s a global issue, not just one Canada is facing. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe published a report in 2024 called the Generation At Risk with Bell Lets Talk with a number of the mental health organizations and frankly there are 1.25 million youth in this country aged 12 to 24, I believe was the age we looked at, that are struggling with their mental health and about 60 percent of them aren\u2019t getting the help they need,\u201d adds Cooper. <\/p>\n
A study out of Harvard University, in collaboration with Boston University and the Boston Medical Center, found an alarming trend with kids and mental health struggles. The study was conducted between 2014 and 2023 and involved two million children and youth. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy 2023, we saw 15 percent or one in seven primary care visits included a mental health need and I think most notably we saw a really stark increase in anxiety related visits \u2013 nearly a 300 per cent increase over 10 years and those increases were especially concentrated in teens, especially female teens,\u201d says Megan Cole Brahim, associate professor and division director at Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine. <\/p>\n
Researcher Cole Brahim says there are a number of contributing factors. <\/p>\n
\u201cExposure to social media, constant access to screens and digital technology, heightened academic pressures, competitive pressures, as well as a lot of disruptions we saw during the pandemic. At the same time, we do know that there is an increase in screening at the same time which is a good thing,\u201d says Brahim. <\/p>\n
Cass adds research shows there is a direct correlation between increased screen time and anxiety levels. <\/p>\n
\u201cI find it very interesting that anxiety is on the rise and we have a generation of children that are more connected through technology and less connected emotionally and I don\u2019t think we can ignore that,\u201d says Cass. <\/p>\n
She says anxiety can present itself physically, emotionally and mentally \u2013 anything from panic attacks to lack of motivation. <\/p>\n
Gabby Scollard Author Gabby Scollard is pictured on May 22, 2026. (CTV Atlantic \/ Emma Convey) <\/p>\n
Gabby Scollard, 23, knows it all too well. She has struggled with her mental health for most of her childhood and it was the hardest during her high school years. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was caught with depression, anxiety, all of it and I started writing down reasons to stay alive in my bedside journal just out of desperation and once I recovered, I thought \u2018Wow, maybe this could help someone else that\u2019s really struggling,\u2019\u201d says Scollard. <\/p>\n