Melancholy and boredom: Americans' assessment of their mental health continues to fall
The problem of mental health of citizens continues to be acute in the United States. According to a new Gallup poll, in 2025, the share of Americans who rated it as "excellent" fell below 30% for the first time. The most significant deterioration is observed in younger people and university graduates. Against this background, the number of calls to specialists is growing. For more information about the new survey, as well as the causes of the problem, see the Izvestia article.
Survey and psychologists
At the end of 2025, the Gallup Institute of Public Opinion published a survey on the state of Americans' mental health. According to their data, only 29% of citizens rated it as "excellent". As an example, the statistics of the "pre-covid era" are given: since 2001, this number has been almost unchanged and remained at the level of 42%.
The deterioration was recorded in all demographic groups, but it is most noticeable among the younger generation and university graduates. Among millennials and zoomers (Generation Z), the drop over the past six years has been 15 percentage points and averaged 28 and 23%, respectively.
College and university graduates also began to assess their mental health worse. The "excellent" rating in this category dropped by 17 percentage points (from 53% to 36%). People without higher education also experienced a drop from 40% to 30%.
As the assessment of Americans' mental health deteriorates, so does their desire to fix the situation. The average number of visits to a specialist, according to Gallup, was 3.2, compared with 1.1 in 2001 and 1.5 in 2004. It is important that among millennials and zoomers, the statistics of visits to a psychologist are an order of magnitude higher than those of the "silent generation" (born 1928-1945), boomers and generation X.
The reason for such statistics is the high publicity of the topic. The younger generation grew up in an era when mental health issues began to be recognized more openly than in the past. In addition, the medical community, employers, and the government are now emphasizing the importance of mental and emotional well-being. All this, presumably, encourages Americans to talk more openly about their condition.
Psychologist and family therapist Elizabeth Levina noted that the deterioration of Americans' mental health is not a sudden crisis, but a process that has been taking shape over the past decades. The Gallup survey data only indicated what has been felt in society for a long time.
Vsevolod Sazonov, PhD, psychologist, added that the decrease in mental well-being in the United States, recorded in the study, correlates well with what is observed in practice. The difference between generations is also visible. According to the expert, the main demands of the older generation are related to growth, leadership, and the search for new footholds. The picture is very different for zoomers and millennials.
— Their requests are mainly psychological: chronic anxiety, insomnia, feeling of uncertainty, high stress levels and uncertainty about the future. Many people talk about constant internal tension and lack of a sense of stability, even with an outwardly normal life," the expert explains.
Waste of money
Evgeny Antonov, senior lecturer at the National Academy of Medical Sciences and a researcher at ISKRAN, explains that the deterioration of the mental health of zoomers and millennials in the United States is determined by several reasons, not just due to traditional generational differences. The first of them is economic instability.
— Zoomers and millennials inherited an economy with prolonged wage stagnation, housing price inflation, and most importantly, record student loan debt. The average debt of a university student is more than $35 thousand. Surveys show that about 60% of borrowers associate bearing the financial burden with mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts," says Evgeny Antonov.
According to him, it used to be believed that higher education guarantees economic mobility and financial security. Today, the real labor market in the United States, with its structural problems, often knocks the ground out from under its feet. The once protective factor in the form of higher education sometimes becomes a risk due to the devaluation of diplomas.
The expert cites a unique social environment as the second reason. The psychological development of zoomers and millennials occurred in the era of widespread use of social networks. Comparison, attempts at imitation, flaunting one's life, blurring the boundaries between work, communication and personal time have a negative impact on mental health, the expert explains.
The third factor, according to Evgeny Antonov, is "structural uncertainty."
— Zoomers and millennials in the United States reasonably perceive the traditional paths to the "American dream" as increasingly difficult to achieve. This is not an anxiety from personal failures, but a reaction to the volatility of the labor market, financial burden and career uncertainty," the expert believes.
Elizaveta Levina adds that millennials and zoomers are experiencing the most pressure today due to the fact that they are the main earning generations, and their parents and grandparents are increasingly in need of social support. Because of this, young people simultaneously face the need to provide for themselves, help their parents, and bear the growing tax burden.
The events of recent years have also played an important role in the issue of mental health, the expert notes. The pandemic, economic instability, rising housing and education costs, and the threat to many professions due to the introduction of artificial intelligence create chronic stress and a sense of lack of support.
There is no support
According to a report by the non-profit organization Mental Health America (MHA), released in 2025, access to psychiatric care in the United States continues to be inaccessible to millions of people. In 2022-2023, 9.2% (more than 5 million) of people with mental illnesses were not insured.
According to the report, the number of psychologists and psychiatrists in the United States continues to grow, but it is still insufficient. In 2024, there were 320 people per specialist.
Vsevolod Sazonov also points to the high cost of psychological services in the United States.
— Regular therapy is not available to everyone, especially against the background of rising unemployment and financial pressure. As a result, many people either postpone contacting specialists or look for "quick solutions" — from medicines to digital tools, the psychologist explains.
The expert draws special attention to the fact that people are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as a surrogate for psychological help. However, AI does not have a sufficient level of empathy or special knowledge in the field of psychology, so it may not only fail to help, but also increase internal risks.
— As a result, we are witnessing not just an increase in anxiety, but a systemic crisis of access to support. And without the development of high—quality, professional and ethically structured assistance, including consciously and correctly trained digital tools, this trend will only intensify in the coming years," says Vsevolod Sazonov.
Someone will help
Evgeny Antonov says that there are psychological assistance centers in US universities that mainly deal with short-term therapy models. According to him, they are effective in reducing suicidal thoughts, but due to underfunding and lack of human resources, they cannot provide full-fledged psychological assistance.
At the corporate level, among employers competing for Generation Z and millennials, mental health support has become a priority in hiring and staffing, the expert adds. Large and financially stable firms offer their employees at least six paid sessions per year, days off for a "mental reboot" (separate from sick days), flexible schedules, training managers in psychological literacy, and more.
— These are just partial measures that treat the symptoms, but not the disease. Without solving the issues of student debt, housing security, etc. The problems with the mental state of zoomers and millennials will worsen," says Evgeny Antonov.
Elizabeth Levina also explains that attempts are being made in the United States to change the situation.
— However, without a revision of social expectations, the pace of life and the pressure of uncertainty, these measures will have a limited effect. This is not a local problem, but a symptom of prolonged global social tension," she concludes.
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