Working-class Britain is in deep trouble. A shocking new report has revealed that tens of thousands of university graduates are leaving school to join the ranks of Britain’s growing number of “long-term sick”.
In this country, some 2.8 million people are currently “inactive” due to chronic diseases, which is an increase of 700,000 since the COVID-19 pandemic began. And the problem is getting worse.
People aged 16 to 24 are in the prime of life. They should be launching their careers, starting to build up savings and tackling life with all the energy that youth gives them. But they are now the fastest growing group of those languishing on sick pay.
What’s wrong with them? Has some new and terrible disease spread among young people, like the Spanish flu after World War I?
In this country, some 2.8 million people are currently “inactive” due to chronic diseases, 700,000 more since the Covid-19 pandemic
Hardly. The spectacular acceleration in these figures is largely due to an explosion of “mental health” problems in the wake of the pandemic.
It’s bad enough to think of the utter misery of these young lives being wasted on benefits, languishing on the sofa and – often, no doubt – with punitive amounts of student debt.
But the impact on the wider economy is even more devastating: the cost of sickness benefits to the taxpayer is expected to reach £64bn by the end of the year.
This is, in short, a scandal and ministers should address it as a priority.
The new report, by the National Health Service Confederation and the Boston Consulting Group, says reversing even some of the impact of long-term illness would save the country £19.5bn a year by the end of the decade. That would virtually clear Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s alleged £22bn “black hole” overnight. The boost to the wider economy would be even bigger, at almost £63bn.
Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, believes that “the spiral of inactivity is the biggest employment challenge for a generation.” Reversing it, she says, is central to Labour’s plans to boost growth.
But my fear is that, however well-intentioned, the new government will never properly address the root cause of this deepening malaise. With its leftist tendencies and willingness to jump on every fad, I don’t think it will ever confront the driving force behind the crisis: what I call the medicalization of childhood.
This is how everyday problems – loneliness, shyness, nervousness – are increasingly diagnosed as pathologies requiring invasive treatment, rather than being seen as part of ordinary life.
The pandemic, with its cruel and unusual lockdowns, has undoubtedly contributed to this rise in depression, anxiety, OCD and countless other psychological disorders among young people, but the trend began much earlier.
In the decades immediately after the war, self-reliance was considered a virtue. Young people were urged, often forcefully, to learn to cope with life’s inevitable hardships: pain, illness, loss. Their parents, who had known real hardship, wanted nothing to do with whiners.
Beginning in the late 1970s, however, children were increasingly portrayed as especially vulnerable to emotional harm. Society became obsessed with the idea that mental illness was often a common feature of growing up, when in fact it had always been rare.
Of course, any child who has suffered a truly traumatic upbringing, such as one involving neglect or sexual or physical abuse, deserves every bit of protection and help from the state. But in recent years, more and more children have been diagnosed with psychiatric and psychological illnesses thanks to the inventive powers of the burgeoning therapeutics industry, not to mention pharmaceutical companies all too eager to synthesize mind-altering substances for one or another fashionable malady.
When young people behave differently from the norm, society no longer calls them rebellious or troublemakers, but instead labels them with a medical label. Confused or insecure children are diagnosed as “depressed” or “suffering from trauma.” Energetic or disruptive young people are invariably given the label “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD).
Aggressive pupils are diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder. Pupils who are worried about their exams are diagnosed with exam stress. Children who simply do not like going to school may even be called school phobic.
Even a teenager who falls in love is seen by some psychologists as potentially mentally ill, and some so-called professionals claim that “lovesickness” is a genuine illness that needs more “awareness.”
Against this grim backdrop, is it any wonder that so many young people believe they have serious mental problems and are too ill to get a job?
Britain’s large population receiving long-term sickness benefits (one in 15 working-age people is currently out of work due to a so-called chronic illness) is an international outlier. That figure is 69% higher than in Germany and more than double that in Italy.
For me, these figures demonstrate the extent to which mental illness has been normalised in our country and how a significant proportion of young people have been taught to see themselves as ill. Social media has played a major role in this, with irresponsible “influencers”, many with huge followings, promoting everything from anorexia to self-harm and even suicide.
But the broader world of “mental health” has an equal responsibility.
It will not have escaped your attention that young people today, reflecting the diagnoses often imposed on them, easily communicate in the language of the psychiatrist’s couch.
They describe common feelings associated with life’s ups and downs as “stress,” “trauma,” and “depression.” They talk about “boundaries.” They diagnose their parents and anyone else they don’t like as “narcissists.” They avoid “toxic” people, who may or may not be “cheating” on them. They “catastrophize,” try to unravel “repression” and overcome their “denial,” while nurturing their “inner child.”
All this blatant self-indulgence is turning into a public health crisis. It is making young people more fragile, not more resilient: more likely to see themselves as victims and less likely to see themselves as capable adults.
And it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we tell children that they are likely to suffer from stress, trauma and depression during exams, many will experience just that.
I do not deny that many young people unfortunately suffer from debilitating mental health problems such as schizophrenia and psychosis (the increasing prevalence of illegal drugs plays a major role in this).
What I’m saying is that we are encouraging our young people to think that they have health problems when they don’t.
And until sensible people stand up to this tyranny, the number of long-term illnesses will continue to rise, we will all become poorer, and future generations will be betrayed.
- Frank Furedi is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent.