Study: UK Has Seen a Vertiginous Increase in Cases of Anxiety over the Last Twelve Years

The last decade has not been kind to UK citizens, especially its youth. The financial crash, austerity, Brexit, climate change and social media have had a devastating effect, especially in women between the ages of 18 to 24, sending 30% of them into severe periods of stress. But anxiety has also increased in all the population below 55 years old. Here is a look at what the study shows.

A Need for Help

An “explosion”: That is how the study qualifies the increase of anxiety cases in the UK over the last 12 years. It indicates that the causes of this situation are quite clear, as it mentions the Brexit, climate change and social media as major factors.

Going through anxiety is not easy and often requires seeing a specialist in order to be able to master the situation. But today, technology has made possible for people to find help online, like at intermittent-breathing.com, where individuals can learn how to control their anxiety through a breathing method. These self-help websites have become part of the younger generation’s ways of coping.

A Massive Study

This is one of the largest studies ever done on the subject, in the UK. It was directed by Professor Nick Freemantle and took in account diagnosis and treatment by GPs from 795 practices in the country, over a 12 year span, regarding 6.6 million patients. According to him, this all started because of the financial crash in 2008, which caused unemployment to rise and left people with financial insecurities.

We could imagine that the sanitary crisis we have just gone through played a major factor in the study. However, it is not the case since it stopped analyzing data just before the coronavirus lockdown happened. Therefore, we can only imagine what level of anxiety has now reached the citizens of UK.

Results

When you look at the numbers from the study, they are simply staggering. In 2008, 8.42% of women, aged between 18 to 24, suffered from anxiety. In 2018, that number reached 30.33%. Women between the ages of 25 to 34 more than doubled as well, during that period, as they went from 9.08% to 21.69%.

It does seem like there is a gender divide being felt regarding the sentiment of anxiety. In fact, the percentage of men between 18 to 24, suffering from anxiety, only went from 4.95% to 14.88% during the same period. Therefore, in 2018, there was less than half the number of men feeling the pressure of anxiety in comparison to women.