The Growing Anxiety Epidemic

Supposedly, teen suicide rates have doubled over the last two decades in the U.S. according to a 2019 Pew Research study that highlighted the sharp growth in teenage girl depression.

Other studies on the growing teenage suicide rate have focused on the growth of social media, although there has been no solid causal link between the two. While some surveys have shown mental health issues related to social media, others have shown a beneficial association.

Then again, the concern might be overblown as Investigative Economics previously detailed how published statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on suicide are either very misleading or unreliable.

And there’s not really a sign of a depression epidemic, but rather it’s a torrent of anxiety disorders over that time period, particularly across white females.

According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), reports of anxiety for those seeking mental health services have doubled since 2013. While some of that is due to population growth and better reporting, anxiety became the most prevalent of all mental health concerns, beating out the top contenders—personality disorders and depression.

Out of all mental illnesses reported it has gone from about 13.5 percent to 24 percent. It was flagged as a primary or tertiary diagnosis in 75 percent of all reports.

That data aligns with a study from the Journal of Psychological Research noting a rapid increase in anxiety among young adults from 2008 to 2018. It’s potentially a recent trend as a separate study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry on emergency room visits related to anxiety between 1992 and 2001 showed no significant trend.

The data is not necessarily a complete view of mental health in the nation, but only those who seek treatment from a reporting facility.

Most Common in Minnesota

By demographics for 2022, it’s largely related to white women in their late twenties to late thirties in selected states (Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Texas) that are unemployed and never married. Minnesotans represent 10.6 percent of anxiety disorder cases by themselves. Although on a state per capita basis, Iowa has the highest rate—3.6 percent.

By the major demographic categories of gender, race, marital status, and employment status, a full 16.5 percent of those with anxiety disorders are white females that are not married and not employed (unemployed or not in the labor force). This excludes data for which any of those values were missing.