The youth which live as paying guests in cities far away from home, are more vulnerable to mental health issues and drug addiction as compared to other people. This revelation has been made in the latest study conducted by Karnataka’s Bengaluru’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience. The research involved 315 people aged between 18 and 29 years.
Out of whom, 10% have faced depression (major depressive episode), and 14% were suffering from anxiety. As per the National Mental Health Survey conducted back in 2015-16, in the country, 2.8% people were grappling with depression and 3.5% were battling anxiety. Which means that among the youth living as paying guests, the rate of depression and anxiety is 4 times more as compared to other common people.
A major depressive episode is when an individual faces symptoms of depression like sadness, lack of interest, suicidal thoughts, sleeplessness, etc., for two weeks or more. On the other hand, generalized anxiety disorder is when a person is constantly worried about daily chores for a long period of time and hence, his or her life is adversely affected. In both the cases, the person requires sufficient medical treatment.
72% of the youth in the survey, who were suffering from depression, and 59% of them suffering from anxiety were not taking help from a medical professional; while many of them did not even know about these problems, and some others did not visit a doctor because of hesitation.
