Introduction

Mental health refers to an individual's emotional, psychological and social well-being. It is the ability of a person to face the obstacles of daily life and work efficiently. The population of today's world has become more busier and loaded with more responsibilities than ever. Mainly, the youths or the young people are seen struggling through their daily life to achieve the desired results in order to gain the praises and respect from the constantly demanding society.

According to the UN, the persons coming under the age group from 15-24 years are considered as youths. Today, there are 1.2 billion young people aged between 15-24 years, accounting for 16 percent of the global population. And in India itself, there are more than 1.4 billion people in which it includes nearly over 345 million aged 10-24 years, with 15-29 year-olds comprising 27.2 percent of the population in 2021.

The substantial rise in the challenges like academic expectations, peer pressure and concerns about the future has led to various mental health problems among the youngsters like anxiety, psychological distress, depression etc. So addressing these problems at different levels of administration (local,national and international) has become more pivotal than ever.

Causes

The leading factors causing mental health crisis are as follows:-

1) Adverse childhood experiences: Exposure of a child to trauma, abuse, neglect and violence can have a lasting negative impact on his mind which would eventually make him mentally weak during his adulthood. This will harshly impact his/her self-confidence, will power, and emotional control.
2) Poverty and socio-economic inequalities:
Living in poverty or facing economic hardships can also increase the risk of mental health problems in a child or adolescent. This condition limits a young person from accessing quality education, better healthcare facilities and necessary materialistic possesions. Due to such restrictions some youngsters are even highly likely to be inclined towards doing morally and legally wrongful acts like stealing, robbery and many other crimes which are present in our present day codified laws.
3) Academic pressure and performance expectations: High academic pressure, expectations and competitions contribute to stress, anxiety and depression mainly in school and college going students. They eventually develop a sense of fear of failure, low self-esteem, relationship struggles, bad sleep schedule, social isolation etc., as a consequence to such pressures.
4) Social media influences: Spending excessive time in social media can lead to negative comparisons, cyber-bullying and unrealistic expectations impacting self esteem and mental health. The adoloscents(10-19 years) as a result of high internet consumption and addiction, basically start shaping themselves and their character in such a way so as to fit in, in the growing trends of social media. This not only leads to adverse mental health but also bad physical healths like obesity, cardiovascular diseases like high blood pressure, heart diseases, hormonal imbalances etc. caused by sleep deprivations and lack of outdoor activities.

Solutions

1) Firstly, it is utmost important for the parents to inculcate in their child, the qualities of being socially active and friendly rather than handing them their mobile phones and ipads and limiting their social interactions and making them lethargic, which is the current scenario we are getting to see today. Studies have shown a positive relationship between high quality social relationships and subjective well-being across all ages. It helps in mitigating the risk of factors leading to mental health problems like depression, social isolation etc.
2) Secondly, parents should also be counselled and made aware to give emotional support to their children during their highs and lows. Nowadays, due to excess competition and achievements among students, the parents also start to gain expectations for their children's constant success. But they need to keep in their mind that every child is differently built with different qualities and that success comes through various ups and downs. So during such challenging situations parents should try to be as caring and supportive towards their children as possible.
3) Thridly, it is the duty of the schools and colleges to take care of their students education along with mental health in order to be tagged as the best institution. They need to inculcate mental health programs and other innovative programs to keep in check that their students are mentally stable. Because mental stability is of great importance when it comes to education. Special importance should also be given in curbing bullying and ragging activities in schools and colleges. Both the bully and the one who is bullied should be counselled differently and efforts should be applied to build a positive relationship between them. A compulsory grievance redressal cell should be present in every institution to address the problems faced by the students.
4) And at last but not the least, with the growing needs of the younger population, the Governments need to encourage the development of mental health screenings in school and colleges, balanced course of study along with extracurricular activities in the curriculum, crisis helplines and psychological support centres through it's various policies to break the stigma around mental illness and suicide among youths.

Conclusion

In today's time, the youths are under constant pressure of updating themselves and getting better and better and eventually shaping themselves into the most perfect human beings of this world. The hunger and greed to conquer all the materialistic possesions, achievements and perfection has become a never ending need. And the excess of these has led to various consequences and side effects resulting in mental health problems like anxiety, psychological distress, depression, self destruction and suicidal thoughts.
As said by Nelson Mandela, "the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow", and this is absolutely why we all should come together and place the reduction of mental health crisis on our top priority and work towards the betterment of our society.

References list:-
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11790661/
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1876201825000905#:~:text=India%2C%20with%20its%20vast%20youth%20population%2C%20grapples,screen%20time%2C%20sedentary%20lifestyles%2C%20and%20pandemic%2Drelated%20stresses
• https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/youth#:~:text=Who%20Are%20the%20Youth?,resolution%2036/28%20of%201981

Mental health crisis among youths: Causes and solutions

"The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow"- Nelson Mandela