42% of Gen Zers Have ‘Diagnosed Mental Health Condition’: Survey

57% of Generation Z are currently on medication for their mental health condition.

QUICK FACTS:
  • New research from Harmony Healthcare IT, a data management firm that moves and stores patient, employee, and business records for healthcare organizations, found that 42% of Generation Z (18- to 24-year-olds) “have a diagnosed mental health condition.”
  • The company also found that 57% of Gen Zers are “currently taking medication” for their disorder and pay on average about $44 per month for medicine.
  • One in four Gen Zers were diagnosed with a mental health condition specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic, as 68% of the young demographic feel the pandemic “has negatively affected their mental health.”
  • Gen Z also reported experiencing “10 tough mental days” in August alone, and almost one in four said they had “more bad days than good” for the month.
  • One in five go to therapy and pay about $149 per month for the service. 87% find going to therapy “helpful.”
  • 85% of Gen Zers say they don’t feel their generation has been “set up for success,” 75% feel at a “disadvantage compared to other generations,” 50% don’t feel ready to join the workforce, and 66% don’t feel financially stable.
  • 85% are worried about the future, citing as top concerns: personal finances, the economy, mental illness, the environment, politics, the workforce, violence, and the pandemic.
  • The demographic say they’d rather talk about their mental health struggles with friends, siblings and parents than with their boss, strangers, grandparents, or religious leaders.
  • See Gen Z’s top 10 diagnosed mental health disorders below.
TOP DISORDERS AMONG GEN ZERS DIAGNOSED WITH MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS:
  • Anxiety: 90%
  • Depression: 78%
  • ADHD: 27%
  • PTSD: 20%
  • OCT: 17%
  • Eating Disorder: 14%
  • Insomnia: 12%
  • Bipolar Disorder: 8%
  • Borderline Personality Disorder: 7%
  • Addiction and Substance Abuse: 6%
BACKGROUND:
  • Harmony Healthcare IT surveyed 1,055 Gen Z in Sep 2022 about their mental health and concerns about their generation’s future. 47% were men, 45% women, 6% nonbinary, and 2% transgender. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 24 with an average age of 22.
  • A new study of 13- to 25-year-olds from Springtide Research Institute suggests spirituality could be part of the remedy of Gen Z’s mental health crisis. The report found that “having religious/spiritual beliefs, identities, practices and communities are all correlated with better mental wellness among youth.”
  • The study revealed a “majority of all young people (57%) and nearly three-quarters of religious young people (73%) surveyed agree their religious or spiritual practices positively impact their mental health” and that “many participants cite[d] prayer as playing a role in their spiritual practice — 51% said they started praying regularly during the pandemic — and 74% of participants who pray daily say they are flourishing, compared to 57% who never pray.”
  • The study also found that spiritual beliefs and community identity also “correlate with positive mental health. Seventy-four percent of young people who identify as ‘very religious’ say they agree or strongly agree that they are ‘in good physical and emotional condition,’ compared to 42% of non-religious young people. Seven in 10 young people (70%) currently connected to a spiritual or religious community report having ‘discovered a satisfying life purpose,’ as compared to 55% of those who used to be connected to such a community.”
  • 42% of those who feel highly connected to a higher power report they “are ‘flourishing a lot’ in their emotional and mental health, compared to 16% of those who say they do not feel at all connected to a higher power.”

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