(TNND) \u2014 Americans’ mental health hasn’t recovered from the hit it took during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
A new Gallup survey<\/a> showed just 29% of people rated their mental health or emotional well-being as “excellent,” with 72% rating it as at least “good.”<\/p>\n Both are new lows in Gallup tracking going back nearly a quarter of a century.<\/p>\n The trend line took a clear drop between 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n Before the pandemic, 43% of people said they had excellent mental health. That was fairly typical for surveys done over the preceding 18 years.<\/p>\n Then, just 34% said their mental health was excellent in 2020.<\/p>\n And the slide has slowly continued, dipping below 30% for the first time this year.<\/p>\n The declines are seen across demographic subgroups.<\/p>\n Both men and women have registered double-digit drops in their mental health assessments compared to before the pandemic.<\/p>\n Gen X, boomers and the silent generation are all registering lower mental health ratings.<\/p>\n The younger generations of adults, Gen Z and millennials, have registered the deepest declines, down 14 and 16 points, respectively.<\/p>\n Both Republicans (down 13 points) and Democrats (down 9 points) report worse mental health now than they did before the pandemic.<\/p>\n And Americans are seeking help from mental health professionals more now.<\/p>\n Gallup said nearly a quarter of American adults say they\u2019ve visited a mental health professional in the past year.<\/p>\n The average number of annual visits to a mental health professional has risen, too, from 1.5 about 20 years ago to 3.2 now.<\/p>\n