What is Meant by 'Mental Health Awareness'?
Written on Nov 30, 2025
In recent years we have witnessed a dramatic growth in the proportion of our population being defined as suffering from a mental health disorder and requiring treatment for such. Here are some statistics.
According to NHS England, in 2023/24, around 20% of adults in England had what is termed a common mental health condition (CMHC), up from 15.5% in 1993, the most prevalent being generalised anxiety disorder, depression, and 'not specified'. Among 16- to 64-year-olds the numbers have risen to around 25%. Yet rates among those aged 75 and over, have remained stable at around 10%. Rates for severe symptoms have also increased significantly.
In the past 5 to 10 years, autism diagnoses in the UK have increased significantly, with a 787% rise reported between 1998 and 2018. A 2023 study estimated that between 150,000 and 500,000 individuals aged 20 to 49 in England may be autistic but undiagnosed.
Other upward trends include the number of ADHD prescriptions in England having increased 18% each year since the Covid pandemic.
Now recall my reference in my previous post to the extraordinary in the number of people unable to work owing to ill health. In 2025 an estimated 2.8 million people in the UK were economically inactive owing to being on long-term sickness leave, an increase of 800,000 since 2019. Some of the most common conditions are mental health problems, with '313,00 suffering from mental illness, and a further 282,000 for "depression-related illnesses".'
At least two explanations are provided for these trends. One is that life is becoming increasingly stressful, hence more people are suffering mentally. The other is that people (including parents of children thus affected) are becoming more aware of and knowledgeable about mental health problems and more likely to be ready to talk about their difficulties and to seek help.
It may of course be a combination of these two factors, but if it's the case that it is predominantly increasing awareness, and the prevalence of psychological disability in the population has remained largely unchanged over the years, we should ask ourselves what exactly is meant by 'increasing awareness'?
Let's look at this from a somewhat different angle. We may say that our problems-our struggles with life and our fears, distress, despair and misery-are the same but the way we talk about them-'the stories we tell'-has changed. The predominant story now is that we are suffering because of some disorder of our mind or brain and we need to consult a professional who has the expertise to diagnose what this disorder is and administer the appropriate remedy. And if we don't, we will continue to suffer. Thus we are very dependent on professional 'experts'.
These days, this may be the most useful story to tell in many instances, just as it is for most medical conditions. But does this idea of 'growing awareness' among the general population mean growing awareness and acceptance of this story? And can reframing the meaning of the expression in this way offer any new insights?
I shall say no more about this until my next post. But here is a question: Who is in charge of this story? Who is the most important storyteller?
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