Heavy users of social media most prone to mental disorders, new report warns

People who are everyday users of social media are 1.7 times as likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness than those who never use it, according to a major new report calling for curbs on smartphone use by children.

It warns that social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat must do more to ensure self-harm and eating disorder content is not pushed on the most vulnerable. The result has been an explosion in hospital admissions for self-harm among young girls – up almost fourfold in the years up to 2022.

The report, Change the Prescription, from the Centre for Social Justice, calls for a crackdown on the use of smartphones by under-sixteens – to include a statutory ban in schools.

Key CSJ proposals are:

The report also highlights the way rising levels of mental illness are driving up economic inactivity – estimated to be costing the country over £ 9 billion a year and rising.

Between 2019/20 and 2023/24 there was a 209 per cent rise in the number of newly approved personal independence payment (PIP) claims where mental health was the primary health condition, costing approximately £221 million in 2019/20, up to £683 million in 2023/24.

In the 16-24 age group, the number of people not required to look for work due to long term sickness rose 29 per cent between 2019 and 2022 and rose 42 per cent for 25- to 34-year-olds.

The largest increase for those on long-term sickness was due to mental illness, which rose by around 20,000, up nearly a quarter (24 per cent).

The CSJ calls for an overhaul of benefits payments to sickness and disability claimants, under which PIPs would be restricted to those with physical ailments and those with mental disorders would be given in-kind targeted support rather than cash.

CSJ polling revealed that nearly half (48 per cent) of the public agree that people with mild symptoms of less severe mental ill-health should receive benefits-in-kind, with only 18 per cent saying they should receive cash.

Sophia Worringer, Deputy Policy Director at the CSJ, said:

“We have a deeply unhappy generation, amplified by the cancer of social media, whose childhood spent online is threatening their adulthood. Added to this is the ballooning welfare bill with more young people than ever going straight from education into long term sickness benefit.

“Unless we act now to increase the age of digital consent to 16 and ban algorithms for users under 16, our forecasts show that one quarter of all UK children will suffer from a mental disorder by 2030.  This is national emergency and we need to act now.”

A young person with mental ill health said:

“I think there’s a complete miseducation through TikTok. You scroll and you see 10 signs you’ve got ADHD… and then people self-diagnose themselves and then that becomes an issue.”

The report also finds that family doctors believe that the ups and downs of normal life are being over-medicalised.

A Savanta survey for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found that 84 per cent of family doctors believe that everyday challenges are being translated into medical conditions.

And almost as many – 83 per cent – are concerned that anti-depressants are too readily prescribed when non-pharmaceutical interventions are more suitable.

A similar number – 85 per cent – believes that this happens because of a lack of treatments that do not involve drugs.

The CSJ warns the UK is far too inclined to pin a mental health label on patients feeling miserable or lonely. It also cautions that antidepressants are often not the most appropriate or effective response.

The report also reveals new analysis that shows that for all the attention now paid to mental disorders, only three of the country’s 49 health trusts have a definition of mental health at all, with psychiatrists admitting that diagnoses are often subjective.

The report says: “In a desire to support and enable individuals to have positive mental health, there is a danger that the pendulum has swung too far, and that the boundaries between distress and disorder have become blurred.

“This is not compassionate. It risks those who are unwell missing out on the treatment they deserve, and it risks burdening others with unhelpful labels that can hold them back without addressing the root cause of their very real needs.”

The report finds that a fifth of adults in England are now taking antidepressants, even though the NHS itself says that it is not certain how they work. A recent Department of Health report said that at least 10 per cent of prescriptions issued in primary care are not only unnecessary but could cause further harm.

Polling for the CSJ by Opinium showed that the general public is in line with the GP verdict. Nearly two thirds of people, 65 per cent, agree that the NHS should prioritise addressing the root cause of mental ill-health through therapy and/or social prescribing, while just 12 per cent think medical interventions should be prioritised.

This follows a rise in children diagnosed with a probable mental disorder of almost 8 percentage points in just six years, from 12.5 per cent to 20.3 per cent. By 2030, one quarter of all UK children will suffer from a mental disorder, according to the CSJ’s forecast.

Examining underlying factors, the CSJ says that UK has the dubious honour of being a world leader in family breakdown.

It contends that this plummeting family stability is a leading reason for the sharp decline in mental health among children. CSJ research has found that those who experience family breakdown before the age of 18 are 1.7 times as likely to experience mental ill-health as those who have not.

To tackle the over-medicalisation of mental ill health, the CSJ calls for:

Labour MP Dr Simon Opher, who worked for 30 years as a GP, writes alongside Conservative MP Danny Kruger and cross bench Peer and former Chief Executive of NHS England Lord Nigel Crisp in the foreword. Pointing to the problem of “Dr Google” they say:

“Patients increasingly diagnose themselves on the internet and present their symptoms to the doctor in overtly psychological terms. For instance, describing vague feelings of unease or low mood as anxiety or depression.

“It is time the medical profession adopted treatment options beyond the prescription pad for symptoms of mild to moderate mental ill-health. We must push back at this costly and ineffective over-medicalisation, stop labelling mild transient feelings in terms of major psychiatric conditions and offer patients compassionate and practical support to feel better.”