Visions Journal

The reach of anxiety and depression in young people

Christine Yu, PHD, RCC

Reprinted from the The Vibes Are Off: Young People, Anxiety and Depression issue of Visions Journal, 2025, 21 (1), pp. 5-7

Your child wakes up complaining they don’t want to go to school, again. Some days, tears may follow. Other days, a rude comment or slamming doors. 

You can feel yourself tensing, anticipating the battle to get ready and out the door on time. You try cajoling, soothing and reassuring, even ordering them to get ready, but no approach seems to work. Your heart starts to pound. You think of all the other things you need to get to before you leave and wonder how you will explain, yet again, why you are late for work. You feel the frustration building quickly and the mixture of helplessness and guilt settling in. 

If you have experienced something like this scenario, you may have a child struggling with anxiety.

More than feeling blue

We all have moments of stress or anxiety, or times of feeling down and demotivated. I remember my early days at conferences as a graduate student. The idea of presenting to more experienced and knowledgeable academics and answering their questions was enough to give me the nervous sweats, that vomit-y feeling, and several variations of the “what if I mess this up” thought. Any young person who struggles with anxiety or depression can tell you it’s more than a passing moment of the jitters, having worries, feeling blue or moody, or wanting time alone. 

In recent years, evidence has shown rates of mental health conditions in children and youth, including anxiety and depression, are on the rise.¹ Many family members of a child struggling with anxiety or depression understand that the reach of these mental health concerns stretches far beyond the child. 

A family concern

Many parents and educators ask: what can I do to help my child or student? Decades of research have given us some answers. We understand the science of anxiety and depression better and have improved guidelines about which types of treatment work well. Resources, attitudes towards mental health and the availability of services for children and youth have also improved.

But there is still much more work to be done. One piece involves expanding our focus from supporting the child to supporting the family. I’ve had the honour of working with many families in different contexts. They’ve shared their experiences of living with a child with anxiety or depression, as well as their experience of seeking help. 

In addition to the distress their child experiences, I have heard of how these mental health concerns have co-opted the family. Many of the following dynamics may come into play:

• Families have to determine what’s part of typical child development and what needs formal support
• Parents change their work and/or sleep schedules to help their child get through the day (or night)
• Family plans and vacations are placed on hold or cancelled 
• Siblings learn unhelpful coping behaviours 
• Parents judge themselves and their parenting
• Siblings feel ignored because the child experiencing distress understandably gets more parental attention 
• Extended family or friends share their (sometimes unsolicited) opinion about how to parent 

This is not to mention parents’ own well-being. During the COVID-19 pandemic, more parents of children living at home reported a decline in their mental health compared to adults without children living at home.² If the parents are not alright, how can they support their children who are struggling?

Family-level solutions

Focusing on the family is not a new idea, and there are wonderful organizations that provide resources and support to parents advocating for their child’s mental health needs (see Related Resources). However, many parents have also described, in both professional and research settings, how difficult it’s been for them to receive mental health services for their children, often at times when they felt they were in crisis. 

They’ve faced many challenges, including: 

• An overwhelming amount of information (e.g. books, online material) to sort through 
• Figuring out how to talk to their child or youth about what’s going on 
• Professionals who dismiss their concerns 
• Confusion about how and where to get mental health services 
• Decisions about what type of treatment approach is best and most helpful for their child 
• Lengthy wait times 
• A child refusing to attend therapy 
• Financial stress related to paying for services, or taking time away from work to attend sessions
• Being referred on or redirected (more than once) to other mental health services 

The list goes on. Some parents have spoken about the impact on their own mental and physical health, how they felt alone and overwhelmed, and how they ignored their own needs as they focused on helping their child. 

Statistics may show engagement in mental health service use is improving in our province,³ but it’s important to also consider families’ experiences. How confident are parents and caregivers in their ability to recognize the need for professional mental health services? What’s it like for them to seek out and access the right supports for their children in a timely manner? 

Anxiety and depression don’t always show up in clear-cut ways. There are many factors and contexts that can complicate what parents and caregivers see in front of them. This issue of Visions highlights and discusses some of the aspects that can make recognizing and supporting a young person with anxiety or depression challenging: anxiety and comorbid disorders, cultural contexts, stigma, gender, experiencing a pandemic and living in a digital world. 

Making streamlined, consistent, evidence-based information easily accessible to all caregivers, and helping families navigate the multiple entry points into the mental health system may help ease the help-seeking process. 

As we move towards further improving access to services, I am reminded of the many stories parents have shared with me. I take this opportunity to echo their call to consider more deeply the needs of parents and caregivers to better support their children and youth with anxiety and depression.