The State of Mental Health: Understanding Stressors, Barriers, and Therapy Preferences

Mental health has become a crucial concern in recent years, shaped by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, economic instability, and social upheavals. Anxiety, depression, and emotional distress have risen across all age groups, increasing the demand for therapy. 

Researchers Santiago Delboy, MBA, LCSW, and Linda L. Michaels, Psy.D., MBA first studied public perceptions of mental health and therapy in 2020 and revisited their findings in 2023. Their research highlights evolving stressors, the growing need for emotional support, and barriers to accessing therapy, such as high costs. While awareness of mental health care has improved, challenges remain, including the preference for in-person therapy despite telehealth advancements and scepticism toward AI-driven mental health solutions. 

This article explores their key findings, offering insights into the most pressing mental health concerns and the future of therapy. 

Summary:  

During the last five decades, mental health emerged as a critical issue of concern due to the increased stressors, anxiety, and emotional health-related issues permeating society.  

While things become more sophisticated, an individual must deal with many personal, social, and economic issues which adds to their mental health challenges.  

Stressors Across Varying Age Divisions 

People falling under different age clusters experience differing social stressors that are relatively determined by their life situation and the prevailing socio-economic conditions.  

Citizens within the age bracket of 59-70 years old tend to report the impact of stressors related to aging and the probable future of the country.  

Their most pressing stressors include availability of healthcare services, social stability, and the adequacy of retirement funding. 

Gen Z (ages 18 to 26) appears to experience a wider variety of stressors, such as managing family responsibilities, different life transitions, academic and professional work, social activities, and unemployment.  

Discussion topics such as abortion policy, the state of politics, and the economy also add to their mental health challenges.  

Not surprisingly, looking after oneself (36%) and family responsibilities (33%) dominate the most exhausting issue across all demographics, demonstrating that the youth are clearly fighting many battles at the same time.  

Surprisingly, issues of personal security, crime, social discrimination, and even immigration are some of the most discussed social issues, but less than 10% of people considered them major pain inducing issues.  

This points towards the need to study these issues further, although they are critical, they seem to not be the mental health pressing needs of most patients. 

Emotional Support and Social Connections 

A healthy support network is vital to the sustaining of mental health. In saying this, the student feedback indicates that 75% of participants indicated they would have liked to receive more emotional support in the last year.  

This seemed to surface predominantly in younger adults, aged from 18 – to 42 years old, often feel lonely, disconnected, or simply looking to escape the turmoil of everchanging life. 

Moreover, 34% of respondents mentioned that they have fewer intimate relations compared to the past, while only 10% reported gaining more.  

The reduction in personal relationships indicates a shift towards the need for community support with deeper social integration and relationship-building for effective emotional management.  

Effects on Mental Health and Common Emotional Issues  

The burden of mental health issues is notably intricate. For instance, 57% of respondents reported suffering from anxiety within the past year.  

Other issues included depression (50%), being overwhelmed (48%), self-frustration (47%), and life dissatisfaction (46%).  

Furthermore, 43% of respondents reported suffering from loneliness and social isolation, stressing the importance of emotional attachment.  

In addition to the above problems, some respondents reported feeling guilt and shame (32%), lack of self-esteem (30%), having vivid memories of past traumatic experiences (29%), marital problems (28%), and bereavement (25%).  

These observations depict the integrated nature of mental illness among different individuals.  

As expected, people aged 18-35 reported experiencing a wider range of mental health issues than older generations. This could stem from increased social pressures combined with digital and work-life balance expectations. 

Attitudes Toward Therapy and Mental Health Awareness 

There has been a notable increase in awareness concerning therapy and mental health services over the years.  

For example, one in every two respondents (49%) now reported knowing how to locate a therapist which shows a positive change in awareness and accessibility of mental healthcare services.  

Furthermore, an increase from 21% in 2020 to 29% currently having a clear idea on the type of therapy that they feel would be suitable for them, indicates growing familiarity will seek education and discussions pertaining to mental health.  

It is also noteworthy that 55% of respondents admitted that sociocultural problems such as poverty and racism are important issues that affect mental health. In addition, 47% of respondents reported that interpersonal relationship issues, whether current or in the past, are also significant.  

Most interestingly, only 18 % of respondents endorsed the traditional explanation of a mental health problem of a chemical imbalance as a primary cause.  

This endorses the claim that mental health is a complex matter that is increasingly perceived as being shaped by one's personal life and the society at large. 

Experiences and Preferences in Therapy 

Certain experiences were reported more often than others by individuals who had undergone therapy.  

The most frequent ones included examining the relationship between struggles and childhood memories (40%), Mindfulness and meditation (39%), giving short coping strategies (36%), and negative thought identification (34%).  

Other experiences were doing homework between sessions (32%), learning practical skills (31%), and discussing problem-solving (30%). 

Dreams or the therapist-patient relationship (11%) and racism and social issues (5%) were addressed less often. The latter demonstrates a gap between the acknowledgement of systemic factors as having central importance in the sphere of mental health and the frequency with which such issues are raised in therapeutic contexts. 

In regard to therapy preferences, privacy remains a primary concern aside from all other preferences, with 78% of participants stressing its importance.  

Worry, however, does shift towards mental health applications, as 34% of people expressed concern that these applications could misuse their data.  

Interestingly, the potential use of mental health applications increased, with 69% of respondents willing to use them in 2023, in comparison to 57% in 2020. 

It is worth noting that people choose apps focused on mindfulness and meditation (43%) or app that connect them to therapists (41%) instead of AI driven therapy (12%).  

These preferences indicate that while support for technology approaches mental health issues with growing attention, there is still a lack of trust in using AI interaction for wellbeing issues.  

Obstacles in Attending Therapy 

Despite increasing awareness and acceptance of therapy, barriers still exist, and many remain. Cost is the biggest obstacle for many, with 35% of people believing therapy is simply too expensive.  

In addition, 26% of respondents indicated that they prefer to cope with most problems on their own, and 24% stated that they don’t wish to invest money on therapy sessions. Another 23% stated that they depended on friends and relatives instead.  

Curiously, only 6% of respondents expressed some degree of scepticism or distrust in therapy, such as thinking it doesn’t work or being anti-therapist.  

This is evidence that while a great part of financial concern remains, therapy's credibility is not openly disputable.  

The Future of Mental Health Support 

The result of this study reflects emerging concern for mental health illness and willing ness to accept help, financial accessibility, privacy, and preferred format of therapy still influences mental health support. 

The Affordability gap is one that, if solved, could drastically help raise the number of people participating in therapy. There is a need to bridge the gap through expanding insurance coverage, offering sliding scale fees, and increasing community-based mental health programs.  

The overwhelming 78% preference for in-person therapy implicates that while telehealth and mental health applications are growing, digital solutions should complement rather than replace face-to-face solutions. This further means that online platforms need to provide services where the human connection, personalization, and confidentiality are guaranteed.  

Finally, therapists could change the way they provide care by acknowledging social factors that affect mental health and integrating them into therapy sessions. If more therapists integrated systemic factors of ailing poverty, discrimination, or political violence into therapy, clients will be able to feel understood more.  

Conclusion  

There is a paradigm shift happening with the way we understand, seek, and receive help for mental health.  

These shifts in attitudes and new dynamics come with a whole other set of issues that younger generations strive to find shelter in. While therapy is beginning to be more normalized and accepted, the concerns of cost and privacy still stand firm.  

By reducing the hurdles set, as well as integrating an all-around strategy towards mental healthcare, we can work towards a tomorrow where people feel inclined to support their well-being.