Are Britain’s young a bunch of “snowflakes” who lack resilience? This long-running and heated national debate has reached boiling point with the publication of a landmark review into the prevalence of anxiety, depression, ADHD and autism. 

Now that it is here, Professor Peter Fonagy’s verdict is a grave warning about a mental health “crisis” which has engulfed tens of thousands of our young people, in particular young women, and could, if nothing is done, scar their lives, our society and economy for decades to come.  

Rates of conditions such as anxiety and depression in 16 to 24-year-olds have risen by more than a third in a decade, from 18.9 per cent in 2014 to 25.8 per cent in 2024. Young women are almost twice as likely as young men to report common mental health conditions.  

This “crisis” is, as Fonagy makes clear, partly the result of the usual suspects: smartphones, social media and living in a country where the traditional milestones of adulthood, such as moving out of their parents’ homes to buy or rent a place of their own, are increasingly out of reach.  

But it is also the fault – however inadvertently – of a benefits and health system that was supposed to help but has instead left thousands of young people labelled with a diagnosis while struggling to get meaningful support.  

Consider the case of Kim. I met Kim in late August at a Job Centre in Blackpool. Aged just 19, she wore a bright baby-pink tracksuit and had her hair in a high ponytail. She told me how she was badly bullied at school, causing her to drop out with no GCSEs. Although she was clearly nervous and perhaps anxious when we met, Kim never once talked about “her anxiety”, which so many young women talk of as if it is an extension of themselves, an unwanted appendage they are unable to escape.

Instead, she talked excitedly of the support she was receiving from Tracy, a no-nonsense youth specialist job coach by day and grandmother of several little people the rest of the time. Tracy had been helping Kim increase her confidence, and as a result she would soon go back to college to get the qualifications she missed out on.  

Much adversity and disadvantage (two factors which make a young person more likely to suffer from a mental health condition) had brought Kim to the job centre but, for the first time in her life, she had developed a relationship with an older person who not only believed in her but was pushing her “out of her comfort zone” to improve her life.  

All over Britain, there are thousands of Kims with no such support and, as Fonagy’s report makes clear, it is an absolutely horrible time to be a young woman.  

They face some of the highest rates of poor mental health, yet too many are unable to access the support they need. This treatment gap is robbing young women of opportunities that could lead to fulfilling futures.

‘There is a youth mental health crisis’

“I don’t like dramatic language,” Fonagy told me over Zoom as he prepared to launch all 607 pages of his report, “but I do feel there is a youth mental health crisis”.

It is increasingly clear that systems meant to support young women, namely our health and benefits systems, may have actually made this situation worse. They might eventually provide a diagnosis, but they do not always help young women participate in society – whether at school or work – or access what Fonagy believes to be one of the most important antidotes to suffering: having a “purpose” in life.  

“People don’t want the diagnosis. They want support,” he says. The support he recommends is better access to mental health services before a diagnosis. It could include counselling, but it’s also about encouraging young people to get out of their bedrooms, off social media, and to get more exercise.  

This might sound obvious, Fonagy says, “but literally hundreds of studies [show] what benefit exercise brings to mental health. It is probably more effective than most antidepressants. And, yet, seven million people are on antidepressants. How many of them exercise?” 

Kim’s story also shows what a difference relationships can make. In her case, with an older person who could advise and guide her. Fonagy is concerned that young people might get a diagnosis but we lack the spaces for them to foster good relationships and a supportive community. Kim may have found that at the Job Centre, but that is not where every young person with anxiety or depression will end up.  

Over the last year, I have travelled across Britain speaking to young people. Something has gone very badly wrong. We now live in a country where GPs have so little time and know that waiting lists are so long that it is easier for them to write sick notes signing people off than it is to do anything else. A country where a young woman is more likely to be sitting in their bedroom on TikTok consuming harmful content than at a community centre with her friends, because we have so few left. A country where a young woman may not encounter an encouraging adult who has the time to properly engage with them until they are in the system waiting for unemployment support.

It is wrong.  

Fonagy told me he is “in awe” of what younger generations “can cope with”. I am too. They have lived through enormous social and digital change. They may never own homes of their own. They don’t remember a time before smartphones were portals to multiple digital worlds where videos play 24/7, 365 days a year, or where forming a romantic relationship involved holding hands instead of liking someone’s selfie on Instagram.  

We know that today’s young women may have a worse standard of living than their parents and grandparents. That is why they are struggling. That is why they lack hope. Politicians must listen to Fonagy and offer them more – good jobs, affordable homes, access to gyms and community spaces – rather than referring them to languish on waiting lists.