Mental health struggles surged among youth in the last decade. Together, teens still prevail.

Editor’s note: This story explores mental health and mentions sexual assault and self harm, including suicide.

It was his sophomore year of high school, and Jonas Olson was in the hospital a second time for depression. He never dreamed that by junior year he would write about his mental health journey and have a job as a game developer.

Olson is not alone. Seventy percent of high school juniors feel nervous, anxious or edgy for several days during any given 30-day period, according to last year’s Oregon Student Health Survey by the Oregon Health Authority. Almost a quarter of students feel that way every day.

Olson knows those feelings, almost as if he invented them.

“I felt like I had nothing going for me, and that really nothing could go well in the future,” he told Street Roots.

Olson had the support to get through that time. He began an intensive outpatient program where he received regular group therapy. He used to live by the motto, “all A’s or nothing.” That’s changed now.

“It is more important to see myself happier,” he said. “I feel more connected to people, to my family. I would say that overall, I am just doing a lot better. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the ‘all As’ thing.”

‘It’s real’

Adolescence has never been easy. However, the 21st century seems to bring its own set of mental health challenges. Teens consistently point to family and friend struggles, relationships issues, school, social pressure and an overall lack of autonomy as the major contributors to their stress.

Those are the factors Genevieve Castle notices as she travels to high schools across Oregon to talk about mental health as the outreach coordinator for Lines for Life, a crisis and suicide prevention hotline.

Castle hopes teenagers understand they deserve support.

“When I go into schools and I talk to teens about mental health, I just want at least one student to walk away hearing the message that their problems and their feelings aren’t stupid,” Castle told Street Roots. “The stress that you experience when you’re in this age group isn’t less than an adult’s stress just because of your age.”

Not everyone finds such a sympathetic ear.

Moss Smith, a high school senior, began having mental health concerns as soon as he hit adolescence. It wasn’t until recently, when he found a queer therapist, that he got the support he needed.

“A lot of people kind of brushed it off because I was 12, and they were like, ‘You’re fine,’” Smith told Street Roots. “Then the pandemic hit, and I was like, ‘No, I am like, severely unwell.’ People started to take it a bit more seriously, but for the most part, at least around that time, people weren’t really taking my concerns seriously.”

Smith also has friends who have attempted suicide or hurt themselves. One of them died by suicide.

“Just because you don’t understand it, or that you can’t visibly see it, it’s real,” he said. “People, especially kids, know themselves so well. A lot of the time, their health concerns aren’t taken seriously, and when they’re allowed to fester, they can evolve into much greater issues or situations.”

This is also a period of change for youth. Emilee Refvem, the school psychologist at Portland’s Ida B. Wells High School, said the pandemic did not improve younger people’s ability to regulate their emotions.

Self-soothing, grounding and finding a sense of calm even during big emotions is already challenging during adolescence.

“A huge part of why suicide rates are high for adolescents is because the frontal lobe is still developing,” Castle said.

‘Soaring rates’

Child and adolescent mental health is declining, according to researchers at Child Trends, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research center based in Maryland, which published a study in the Milbank Quarterly, a peer-reviewed health care journal.

One in three teenage girls reported having seriously considered suicide in the last two years, according to a 2023 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a nearly 60% jump from one decade ago.

And almost 14% of teenage girls said they were forced to have sex, an increase of 18% over two years and the first increase since the CDC began tracking that number.

In 2021, national organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.

“As health professionals dedicated to the care of children and adolescents, we have witnessed soaring rates of mental health challenges among children, adolescents and their families over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbating the situation that existed prior to the pandemic,” the group wrote. “Children and families across our country have experienced enormous adversity and disruption. The inequities that result from structural racism have contributed to disproportionate impacts on children from communities of color.”

The organizations added that more than 140,000 children in the country lost a primary and/or secondary caregiver during the pandemic. Youth of color were disproportionately affected.

“We are caring for young people with soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness and suicidality that will have lasting impacts on them, their families and their communities,” the group concluded.

Specific recommendations included increasing funding and resources for adolescent mental health care from the federal to the local level. But federal funding remains problematic under the Trump administration.

The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration officials notified thousands of grant recipients Jan. 13 that their funding was cut. The cuts amount to $2 billion in mental health and addiction treatment grants.

Recipients included Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education), a school mental health program created in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The federal administration reversed its decision Jan. 15, but only after an outcry from mental health organizations, educators and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.

‘People can absorb stress’

Though funding is uncertain, many services continue.

As a peer volunteer for YouthLine, Ellie Hatfield responds to calls, texts and chats. Hatfield told Street Roots many young people reach out about conflict with family and friends, relationship concerns and managing social anxiety.

In her own life, Hatfield notices a collective sense of fear among her peers from “living in a really dark time” due to government actions and an increasingly “hostile” culture.

“People are really scared,” she said. “I think all of this extra stress in the environment, and seeing adults around you be stressed, people can absorb stress without realizing it.”

Refvem, the school psychologist, agreed.

“I also think with the things happening in our country as it relates to immigration, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, Islamophobic, anti-Semitism, like all of these things that have been really hurtful, cause a much higher level of stress, especially in BIPOC communities,” she said.

‘You aren’t alone’

Halle Hubert began a 16.3-mile walk at dusk in Boston in June 2024. The Boston Overnight Walk was the first event Hubert participated in with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Before the event, Hubert raised $1,000 for the nonprofit.

Hubert was introduced to the organization through treatment after experiencing a suicide attempt in eighth grade.

“As I was feeling better, I wanted to help others who didn’t feel the same way and then have a connection with people who have a shared experience,” Hubert told Street Roots.

She has been involved with several AFSP events since then.

Now a junior in high school, Hubert will participate in the Oregon chapter’s Advocacy Day in February. She and other advocates will meet with state lawmakers to discuss policies on suicide prevention. She also hopes to go on another overnight walk on the East Coast this summer.

Hubert said her time with AFSP has been “eye-opening.” She initially felt alone in her pain.

“Through AFSP, you’re able to connect with so many people that have shared experiences with you,” Hubert said.

Castle hopes that her work gives adolescents a chance to connect with one another.

“Especially in high school, I remember feeling so isolated with my mental health, and feeling like I don’t understand how everyone is doing so much better than me, getting better grades, looks better than me, has all of this attention,” Castle said. “Like what’s wrong with me? So taking a moment to kind of connect … we all have similar things that we’re worrying about.”

JJ Reynolds, a high school senior, also feels the importance of connection. Between a difficult childhood and his family not supporting him as a transgender person, he experienced a significant toll on his mental health for most of his life.

Finding his people, however, has made all the difference.

“I found people in high school who really care about me and my being again,” Reynolds told Street Roots. “They really showed me how to be a better student, showed me how to be a better person overall. That really made me who I am today.”

Like Reynolds, Hubert has found a support system through AFSP.

“You aren’t alone,” she said. “For people struggling, that don’t see that, it’s really helpful.”

‘So many resources’

If Hubert knows someone who is struggling, she shows up to be there for them.

“I’d really like to just make sure that they know they’re not the only one struggling,” Hubert said. “And that there are so many resources for them to get help.”

Refvem said people aren’t limited to in-person resources.

“No one is meant to do this whole life thing by themselves,” Refvem said. “And I think with depression, there are times where people feel so isolated. That makes it hard to remember that there’s other people out there.”

Although Ellie Hatfield never meets the peers she helps in-person, she said her volunteer work is nonetheless fulfilling.

“Having someone be there in the moment to bring you back down to earth or maybe they just be like, ‘I care about you,’ can be really helpful and it can save someone’s life,” Hatfield said. “I think that that is the impact I hope to have. But I also hope a lot of these people, from our support, can get the support long-term that they need.”

There is no shortage of peers being at each other’s side.

“I have so many youth that I’ve worked with that really impacted me and gave me so much hope and happiness about the world,” Castle said.

‘A trustworthy adult’

Harumy Concepcion of Monmouth also sees the mental health challenges at the individual child level. She is a youth mentor for Clarvida, a private company that contracts with the Oregon Department of Human Services to work with young people in the foster care system.

“My primary role is to be a stable, trustworthy adult in their lives,” Concepcion told Street Roots. “I can help them work toward figuring out and achieving specific goals. These vary from behavioral goals such as managing stress and anger, to academic goals like increasing their grades, to social goals like how to make and keep friends.”

The half-dozen young people she works with have experienced high levels of trauma in their lives as measured by their ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scores.

They experience anger and depression and often lash out.

“It’s important to remember that all of these behaviors are forms of communication,” Concepcion said. “They’re often saying, ‘Help me. Pay attention to me. Love me.’ They have been left or abandoned or neglected or told in so many words that they are basically not cared for, not safe and not loved.”

Concepcion said the pain she sees on a daily basis is often mirrored in young people in the larger society. Kids face so much toxicity these days, she said — especially looking at screens that glare back at them with body image comparisons, misogyny, racism, homophobia and violence.

“On the other hand, it is extremely important to recognize that kids do not need to be restricted from the social aspects of social media because they are more connected with each other than ever before,” she said.

To truly help young people on their paths to mental wellness, adults should focus less on imposing restrictions and more on providing gentle guidance, she added.

“It’s our responsibility to not necessarily restrict those boundaries but help provide a safe way to teach empathy, compassion and self-awareness,” Concepcion said. “It’s our job to guide them safely and show how much good and how much harm they can do as well.”

Lauren Devlin is the editor of The Headlight at Ida B. Wells High School. Street Roots correspondent Tom Henderson volunteers with the school’s journalism program.

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This article appears in January 28, 2026.