5 days ago
Still vexed — an overview of anxiety and depression
In 2018, the Deseret News published a series called Generation Vexed, exploring and detailing the then-growing scope of teenage anxiety in the United States. It was already well on the rise even before the pandemic, the land wars that broke out in the Middle East and Europe, and the political schism of the 2020 election.
Approximately 1 million teenagers struggled with anxiety, and experts at the time estimated that nearly 1 in 4 had some form of an anxiety disorder, with that ratio going up to nearly 1 in 3 when just girls were considered.
Census data from 2015 'estimated more than 17 million (children) had already experienced a diagnosable mental disorder,' the Deseret News reported. That number was 'the equivalent of the entire populations of Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado' combined.
That was just teenagers, and just the disorder of anxiety — and that was seven years ago.
Anxiety is still rising.
From 2018 through the first two years of the pandemic in 2022, anxiety rates for all Americans went up by over 16%, and depression rates by over 15%.
In 2023, the American Psychiatric Association said that more than a third of all adults felt more anxious than they did the year before.
Then, when it did the same study last year, the number of adults reporting that they felt more anxiety jumped to 43%. For perhaps a brief moment, 2023's number seemed small by comparison.
Today, the National Institute of Mental Health reports that some 40 million Americans have anxiety disorders — nearly one-fifth of the total U.S. population — and more than 14 million suffer from depression. That is another mental health disorder that has steadily been rising, with 29% of all Americans experiencing depression, according to Gallup, up from 19% eight years earlier.
Now, the NIH research suggests that 21 million people in the U.S. will experience a depressive episode in their lifetimes. Mental Health America, a nonprofit dedicated to mental health and prevention, published a report that says 46% of Americans will at some point confront a mental-health-related disorder.
Those numbers, while shocking, are not as surprising to encounter in 2025 as they may have been even a few years ago. That's because, while there are more people experiencing disorders such as anxiety and depression, general awareness of broader mental health issues has risen, too.
According to Michele Nealon, a psychologist and president of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, writing for the United Nations in 2021, the pandemic 'accelerated positive momentum in our communities to raise awareness about these issues and increased accessibility to crucial support and services for those affected.'
Talking about mental health — interpersonally, on the news, social media or via the numerous celebrities who often show support (including Michelle Obama, Demi Lovato, Simone Biles, Prince Harry and Dwayne Johnson) — has become so common that the cause and effect of anxiety and depression are beginning to look like the chicken and the egg question to some, too.
The BBC reported earlier this year that experts in England are now openly debating if the proliferation of awareness has actually caused more young people to self-diagnose, which results in 'over-pathologising distress.' The argument is that, rather than learning resilience, some are diagnosing what might be the normal discomfort of growing up as anxiety or depression.
Regardless of the possible pitfalls, the pandemic had one recognizable silver lining, Nealon wrote: it 'resulted in more open dialogue on, and greater knowledge of, mental health than ever before.'
This is not to say that stigma no longer exists; it does. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a webpage that was updated in January of 2025, explaining and contextualizing the ways people with mental health disorders are made to feel stigma — the negative sentiment, shame or disgrace leveled onto an action or behavior. It included structural stigma, where institutions are not prepared to support those with them; public stigma that comes from individuals and groups judgmental toward mental health issues; and even self-stigma, where someone with a mental health issue 'may believe they are flawed or blame themselves for having the condition.'
All of which is why experts say it's so important to keep talking about the resources that exist for people who are experiencing anxiety and depression. Not just in order to combat the stigma that individuals, communities, cultures and organizations may have, but also the sheer volume of those who are already experiencing anxiety and depression and need to know how and where to find help for a legitimate and pressing health concern. There are resources that exist, and — as always — much more to learn. It's a topic that's been investigated, it turns out, since the days of ancient Greece and Rome.
The first known medical reference to mental health disorders like anxiety or depression is within the texts attributed to Hippocrates from ancient Greece. They describe a subject named Nicanor who's stricken with an irrational fear — a phobia — of the woman who plays the flute at the symposium. Hearing the music played at night, Nicanor would have panic attacks, yet he was unaffected when he encountered the same flutist during the day. Its inclusion by one of modern medicine's founders made clear that mental disorders had long been considered health issues.
Ancient Roman thinkers investigated the variations of mental disorders more specifically. It was Cicero, the Roman statesman and stoic philosopher, who carved out the notion of anxiety and depression — separately — and sought to solve them. 'In some there is a continual anxiety, owing to which they are anxious … for all are not anxious who are sometimes vexed, nor are they who are anxious always uneasy in that manner,' he wrote in 45 B.C.
According to Marc-Antoine Crocq, a psychiatrist, who wrote 'A history of anxiety: from Hippocrates to DSM' in the scientific journal Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, Cicero's arguments come from a book written after his daughter's untimely death and was 'a plea for Stoicism, a branch of philosophy that is one of the pillars of today's cognitive therapy.' Kathleen Evans, of Griffin University in Australia, suggested that Cicero's whole book was indicative of a 'major depressive episode' for the great ancient philosopher. His work may have been a means for him to navigate the struggles of his own life.
Another stoic called Seneca, wrote Crocq, 'taught his contemporaries how to achieve freedom from anxiety in his book 'Of Peace of Mind.'' Later, Seneca suggested in another of his treatises that people should stay present in their day-to-day lives, previewing thousands of years ago what is now commonly referred to as 'living in the moment.'
Depression was long called by the other name of 'melancholia,' especially so during the period between the late 1700s and the late 1800s. It was defined as 'a disorder of intellect or judgment, a 'partial insanity' often, but not always, associated with sadness,' wrote Kenneth S. Kendler, of Virginia Commonwealth University. He wrote that it was a 'mood disorder.' That name, itself, helps to understand why there is some lasting stigma felt today by folks whose lives and work are disrupted by their depression as if it is a matter of mood, rather than a debilitating health disorder. Not until the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin began using the word 'depressive' to describe elements of 'melancholia' in the late 1900s did its name change to what we know today.
That definition and symptoms have changed, too. While it is common for people to feel sad or low in the course of their days, depression manifests itself with more pronounced symptoms, some of which include feeling down, empty, pessimistic or hopeless. Those experiencing depression report feeling tired, lacking in pleasure or interest in the things they care about, difficulty concentrating and trouble sleeping, among many others. Though not always, some also report suicidal thoughts. Understandably, these feelings often implicate behaviors and moods — the poor descriptor from the Victorian period raising its ugly head — like anger, restlessness, a tendency to isolate or a struggle to manage responsibilities.
The list of symptoms is long, and not everyone who has depression exhibits all of those that are published by the National Institutes of Health, the Mayo Clinic, or any of other national and local agencies. Additionally, age plays a role in which symptoms are more or less pronounced, as does gender. There are a kaleidoscope of different possible symptoms — many of which everyone feels at some point or other in the course of their lives — and it makes it difficult to determine when one is momentary and another a disorder.
If someone is feeling any of these symptoms for prolonged periods, they should speak to their regular medical care provider about it or call one of the local or national hotlines published with this article to discuss their specific circumstances. Taking advantage of available resources and learning more is the first step to care. To help someone who may not have recognized these symptoms for themselves, Harvard Health suggests encouraging that person to use the resources or seek help, or a softer touch might be to offer emotional support.
The symptoms of anxiety — just like Cicero suggested a couple millennia ago — are not necessarily unique to those who suffer from an anxiety disorder. Most people will feel some version of what we understand anxiety to be at some point in their lives. It could be before starting a new school, prior to a test, a date or a job interview, or even when rent and other bills are due. To a certain extent, anxiety is a regular part of most lives, which makes its disorder also hard to firmly categorize and understand.
The Mayo Clinic explains the disorder as an escalation of the common occurrences of anxiety. 'People with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations,' its website reads. Those symptoms show up as constant worry, elevated heart rates, fear, trouble sleeping, feeling a sense of looming issue or problems. There are also many different permutations of anxiety that also exhibit these symptoms. These issues can lead to other health issues or even depression itself.
If someone is uncertain, they should also discuss the matter with their regular health care provider or one of the national hotlines. The treatment for both begins with asking questions and seeking help, no matter how certain or uncertain someone might be.
Part of that seeking of help, too, can be speaking with your friends, family, clergy or teachers. The ancient Greek and Roman philosophers asked each other these bigger questions about their minds and health at the lyceum in order to reach reasonable conclusions, and it turns out that many of them are still in place. Today, we have doctors, phone and text hotlines, and our respective loved ones to seek out more and better information about anxiety and depression.
The more we know, too, the less likely we are to judge or to suffer needlessly from anxiety or depression. Seneca wrote that 'there are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.'
If you need help, please refer to this document for contacts that can speak over the phone or text in either moments of crisis or those who need support.
You can always call or text the national Disaster Distress Hotline at 1-800-985-5990 (para Español: Llama o envía un mensaje de texto 1-800-985-5990 presiona '2.').
If you're in Utah, Huntsman Mental Health Institute lists several ways to get help for a mental health crisis:
University of Utah community crisis intervention and support services: 801-587-3000.
Text or call Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988. Utah Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Walk-in crisis center for adults: 955 W. 3300 South, South Salt Lake.
Utah Warm Line: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. 1-833-773-2588 (SPEAKUT) or 801-587-1055.
For parents, teachers and educators: SAFEUT Crisis Chat & Tip Line, download the app or call 833-372-3388.
For active National Guard members, their family and civilian personnel: download SafeUTNG app or call 833-372-3364 (SAFENG).
