Infinite Blaze;

Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders

• Common mental disorders (anxiety, depression):

  • About 1 in 6 adults had a common mental disorder in the past week 24hrtherapy.co.uk+14mind.org.uk+14england.nhs.uk+14todaynews.co.uk.

  • Mixed anxiety and depression affect 7.8% of adults todaynews.co.uk+2madeofmillions.com+2mind.org.uk+2.

  • Lifetime prevalence of depression in England is around 4–10% en.wikipedia.org+4mentalhealth.org.uk+4madeofmillions.com+4.

• PTSD:

  • Approximately 1 in 10 people in the UK experience PTSD in their lifetime, with 4% at any given time embryo.com+1chemist-4-u.com+1.

  • About 12.6% of women aged 16–24 screen positive embryo.com.

• ADHD:

  • Nearly 2.5 million in England may have ADHD (1.6 m adults + 888k children/young adults), but only ~33% are diagnosed. Waiting lists topped 549,000 in March 2025 ft.com+1thetimes.co.uk+1.

Children & Young People

• In 2023, 1 in 5 (20%) children and young people (ages 8–19) in England likely had a probable mental health disorder gov.uk+15england.nhs.uk+15england.nhs.uk+15.

• 11–16-year-olds with eating disorders: 2.6%; ages 20–25: 5.9% 24hrtherapy.co.uk.

• By 2020, 33% of 16–24-year-olds showed signs of anxiety or depression en.wikipedia.org+1madeofmillions.com+1.

Demand on NHS Services

• Service contacts: 3.79 million people accessed NHS mental health, learning disability, and autism services in 2023–24 (40% increase since 2018–19) england.nhs.uk+124hrtherapy.co.uk+1.

• Waiting lists (April 2024):

  • ~1 million adults waiting

  • 345,000+ referrals over a year

  • For under-18s: 343,000 waiting, 109,000+ waiting over a year theguardian.com+2reddit.com+2theguardian.com+2.

Disability Benefits & Socioeconomic Impact

• Disability benefits:

  • 2.9 million working-age adults claimed disability benefits in 2024 (~7.5% of 16–64 age group), up ~900k since the pandemic theguardian.com+1thetimes.co.uk+1.

  • Over 500,000 claims were primarily due to mental or behavioural conditions mentalhealth.org.uk+15theguardian.com+15en.wikipedia.org+15.

  • Patients in contact with NHS mental health services rose by 36% since 2019; antidepressant prescriptions up by 12% thetimes.co.uk+1todaynews.co.uk+1.

Suicide & “Deaths of Despair”

• Suicide statistics (2023):

  • Total UK registered suicides: 7,055 (~19/day) — highest since 1999 en.wikipedia.org+1ons.gov.uk+1.

  • England & Wales: 6,069 (rate 11.4/100k); Scotland: 792; Northern Ireland: 221 en.wikipedia.org+1ons.gov.uk+1.

  • Most affected: men under 50 en.wikipedia.org+1en.wikipedia.org+1.

  • Male suicide rate: 17.4/100k (highest since 1999); female rate: 5.7/100k, highest since 1994 ons.gov.uk.

  • “Deaths of despair” (suicide, alcohol, drugs) up ~24%, adding ~1,200 deaths/year (~3,700 deaths total) thetimes.co.uk.

Health Inequalities & Risk Factors

• Economic, housing, health insecurity: ~5 million working-age adults face serious insecurities, fuelling a stress ‘crisis’ theguardian.com.

• Gender differences:

  • Women (16–24) are ~3× more likely to report mental health issues (26% vs 9%) mentalhealth.org.uk.

  • Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety; self-harm reported by 25.7% of women vs 9.7% of men (ages 16–24) mentalhealth.org.uk.

  • Men are 3× more likely to die by suicide and more likely to be sectioned or have substance dependence .