World Mental Health Day 2025: Combating the mental health crisis in Indian teens

Imagine you’re a teenager. Or better still, think back upon your teenage years. 

You probably remember it to be a stressful time. Your body and brain are changing, and each feeling is amplified. You are dealing with competition, crushes, cliques, and comparing yourselves to others. 

You also have your academics and career to consider, spending late nights studying for entrance exams. Worried about what’s happening and what comes next, anxiety lingers around you like a heavy fog. 

Imagining these feelings, and applying them to the super-competitive, social-media-first world of 2025… it would feel as if every interaction you have, every unsatisfactory test score, and every decision seems like a verdict on your future, making you question your own self-worth at times. 

This is the reality for several teenagers in India. 

Anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia — they experience it all, amplified by social media and societal pressure.

Let’s look at what data tells us: 

• According to a meta-analysis of studies across India (Malhotra et al), about 6.5 per cent of children and adolescents in community settings and more than 23 per cent in school settings show signs of psychiatric disorders.

• National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows student suicides rising by about 65 per cent over a decade (2013 to 2023), reaching nearly 13,900 student suicide deaths in 2023.

• A study by the Department of Psychology at SRM University, Andhra Pradesh, revealed that over 70 per cent of students reported moderate to high levels of anxiety, and 60 per cent showed symptoms of depression

Need to move beyond awareness

For a lot of adolescents in India, what is written off as just “teenage stress” might as well be a threshold already crossed. 

This begs the question: While there is more awareness of mental health in India than ever, why are our youngsters still suffering from mental issues? 

“It is because awareness does not lead to immediate action,” says Ganesh Kohli, Founder of The International Career and College Counselling (IC3) Movement, a global student counselling and teacher training initiative. 

“There is a lot of awareness of diabetes, but people still overindulge in sweets and take no preventive measures against it. The same is the case with mental health,” he explains, adding that action is not taken until “something bad happens”. 

Kohli admits that while teenagers might be aware of their psychological needs, they are either hesitant to open up about them or do not know where to get support. 

“We found that they would rather talk to their friends about it than approach a counsellor or a teacher,” he adds, referring to the findings of a recent report by the organisation in collaboration with the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE). 

The report, titled The 2025 Student Well-being Pulse Report, revealed that 40 per cent of students from Classes 8 to 12 do not know where to go for mental health support, and 60 per cent are uncomfortable or unsure about approaching teachers or counsellors.

“There aren’t enough resources available to ensure these students’ mental well-being. The awareness isn’t as widespread as it is believed to be, either, especially in rural areas. Even when there is awareness, we are unable to comprehend the severity of this crisis — leading to no action,” Kohli states. 

Students on edge

The price of this inertia, therefore, is being borne by the adolescent students in India. The Pulse Report states that 1 out of 5 students in India rarely experience feeling calm, relaxed, or excited, while 1 in 3 students frequently experience negative emotional states like frustration, fatigue, and anxiety. 

More than half of students were found to have been feeling tired during the school day, and do not receive the recommended 6-8 hours of sleep each night. 

According to the study, a considerable majority of students often experience feelings of exclusion, hopelessness, and inadequacy, with one in every four students frequently feeling left out or excluded, and one in every two students not feeling good enough. 

These issues are further exacerbated among girl students, who have been “taught to endure quietly”, the report points out. 

Academic pressure causes anxiety the most

Furthermore, the findings suggested that academic performance, homework, and exam preparation emerged as the top sources of stress. 

Nearly 1 in 5 students cite academics as their biggest worry at school, as the fear of failure is tied to societal expectations and family honour. 

It is also one of the reasons for high levels of exhaustion and anxiety among students of Class 12, with 3 in 4 of them not getting adequate sleep on school nights.

To combat this, Kohli states that schools, teachers, and parents must “make academics fun, and fun academic.” 

“Let’s just say a child likes to play football. You could use that to teach math and physics. For instance, you could teach how the flight pattern of a kicked ball resembles a parabola, and explain geometric concepts through the football field,” he suggests. 

He adds that if students have to excel academically, they have to be free from the fear of failure. “In our experience, love-based learning always yields better results than fear-based learning,” he says. 

Uncertainty about the future

Closely linked with academic expectations, the report points out that career-related anxiety further compounds pressure. 

This stems from a lack of structured career guidance — nearly 50 per cent of the respondents said that they have never received structured career counselling in school. In addition, 20 per cent of students were unsure whether such support even exists.

The study states that without clear guidance, many students feel lost when trying to make decisions about their futures, with 1 in 3 students reporting high stress due to career uncertainty.

“Career counselling is important for students to assign purpose to their education and interests. With effective career counselling, students can make the transition from school to college smoothly,” Kohli explains. 

He adds that career counselling needs to be an everyday, intentional exercise from an early age by both teachers and parents to guide this transition, and not something reserved for Class 12 alone. 

The report further points out that students who do receive structured career guidance are more confident and better at academics than the once who don’t. 

The threat of tech 

The Pulse Report also points to teenagers’ social media use — or more specifically, how they use it — having a direct impact on their mental health. 

For instance, the report finds nearly 1 in 5 students staying on the phone for more than 30 minutes almost every night, negatively impacting their sleep. Further, these students scroll through social media passively, leading to decreased satisfaction in their personal and school lives, as well as a negative self and body image. 

“There is a reason most ads on TV are played at the night slots, which is that their programming is most powerful at the time before sleep,” Kohli says, adding that children who scroll through social media before sleeping are most affected by what they see in their feeds. 

“They are at an age where they give a lot of attention to what others are doing and how their lives are,” he adds. 

To solve this, he suggests that students be taught to use social media carefully. “Policing and restricting their social media use is not really ideal; instead, platforms can be used to discover new things and gain knowledge,” he explains. 

The onus of student well-being on schools 

Ultimately, both the report and Kohli suggest that the prerogative of student well-being and mental health rests on schools, counsellors and parents. 

The report points out that nearly 1 in 4 students believe that their school is not doing enough to promote mental health effectively. “Counselling needs to be a part of the school’s culture, and not a one-off event,” Kohli states. 

He suggests that teachers undergo gatekeeper training and sensitisation lessons to stay more attuned to the emotional and mental needs of the students. If students prefer talking to each other, schools can add peer discussion sessions where they can open up, he adds. 

According to Kohli, an effective counselling culture follows the following principles: 

1. Every teacher is a counsellor.

2. Every activity at school is a counselling activity.

3. There is fun in learning, and learning in fun.

4. Students need to be given purpose and intent to what they do.

“Parents and teachers need to ask themselves: ‘Why aren’t my children or students trusting me with their feelings? Why aren’t they coming to me?’ Then, they will be able to create a safe space for students to talk about how they are feeling,” he explains.