When it reaches the stage when everyone in the entire country is diagnosed as having mental health problems, will we have to accept that being mentally ill represents mankind’s new norm, thus rendering the whole concept meaningless? This is not some idle philosophical hypothesis. This is a question we will one day have to ask ourselves if matters continue on their current path.

According to new research from Zurich Insurance, 51 per cent of people aged between 15 and 19 now have a mental or behavioural disorder such as anxiety, depression or ADHD, and if present trends continue as they have, by 2030 this figure will hit 64 per cent. We have indeed crossed a momentous boundary. On the face of it, being mentally unwell has statistically become the norm among older teenagers in this country, and as things stand, it will ultimately come to represent normality for everyone else.

Yet we should not accept such findings: not on face value, and not upon the criteria they are based. It’s time to debunk the narrative of this ‘crisis’ and push back against the vested interests who propagate it. Far from being a medical emergency, this ‘mental health crisis’ should be more properly understood as a social phenomenon and a........

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