Only 75% in US Say They Have ‘Good’ Mental Health, Lowest Reported in Two Decades

Fewer Americans describe themselves as having good mental health, a recently published Gallup poll has revealed.

According to the poll, just 31% of Americans describe their mental or emotional well-being as “excellent,” with another 44% saying their mental health was “good.” Together, that 75% is the lowest number to say so since Gallup began collecting data on the subject in 2001.

The other data points are also at their highest-ever, with 17% saying their mental health was “fair” and 7% saying they had “poor” mental health. The survey was conducted between November 9 and December 2.

A number of newer developments have also had a sizable impact on the mental health of youth especially. The isolation of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the dramatic increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation and attacks have both been identified in studies published in recent months as causing sharp spikes in depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.

A study published in the in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in September reported that one American in 10 suffers from depression, with the highest rates among teenagers and young adults.

“Our results showed most adolescents with depression neither told or talked with a healthcare professional about depression symptoms nor received pharmacologic treatment from 2015 through 2020,” said Dr. Renee D. Goodwin, an adjunct professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York, who co-authored the study.

Many of these trends began many years ago, which a recent New York Times op-ed by a mental health worker described as “a chronically underfunded mental health system, a house of cards built on sand that the Covid pandemic crushed.”

Indeed, Gallup’s numbers from past polls show that self-reporting of good mental health peaked in 2004, 16 years before the COVID-19 outbreak swept the globe. However, after the outbreak, the numbers quickly plunged.

On top of that, the time that the Gallup survey was performed might also have impacted the results. The respondents gave their self-evaluation of mental health in November and December, when the length of daylight in the United States is nearing its shortest time of the year. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression heavily influenced by the change of seasons, is similarly at its worst during the period. As many as 10% of Americans may also suffer from SAD, especially in northern latitudes.