Given the stress of the current crisis, this does not surprise me. The topic of the news for the past two months now is that there's a doom plague, a mask might not save you, people are violating quarantine to spread the plague, the economy is going to collapse, and Trump is making it all worse. People have lost their jobs, are being told they can't work, that they must stay home, they must stay away from other people, they must be afraid, etc and so forth. So in light of that, it does not surprise me at all that depression and anxiety are ramping up in the adult population.
Neither does the breakdown by age surprise me, with it being worst amongst 18-29 year-olds, and declining with age. I would love to see a finer breakdown in that category. Here is my hypothesis:
For the youngest of adults, especially those just now entering adulthood or their professional careers, this is probably the first societal shock they've experienced. They did what they were supposed to according to The Plan of How The World Works. They persevered through the soul-crushing hell that is high school, and got the best grades they could, and applied for colleges, and are ready to become adults. Or maybe they didn't get quite so good grades or dropped out and were banking on being able to support themselves with some kind of basic labor or service job. Or maybe they've taken out all the student loans to go to college, and are coming into what's supposed to be the beginning of their professional career to an economy that's about to collapse. Or if they haven't graduated, now there's the uncertainty if whether or nor they'll be able to finish their degree, with there being question about when/if campuses will open back up, or whether the online classes offered as substitutes will actually do any useful teaching. Regardless of the myriad variations available in the above, the basic situation remains the same: here they are, their life finally about to begin, and now the economy is collapsing, everyone's dying, a fascist oompa loompa controls the government, and generally the world is over. Well, shit. Now what?
I speak somewhat hyperbolically in describing the above, of course, but I stand by my basic point: The youngest adults are beginning their adulthood in fairly bad situation. And unless they're old enough to remember the previous societal shocks that were supposed end the world, but didn't, it's all to easy to come near the despair event horizon or even cross it.
Compare those who are a little older, or hell, a lot older. They've seen the Housing Crisis, War, 9/11, the dot-com bubble, and so on and so forth. And yet, they didn't die and are still here. Odds are, at least one of the previous crises made their life worse for a time, or messed up what was supposed to be a bright future or golden opportunity. And yet, they didn't die, and are still here. And the older they are, odds are, the more times they've seen that the world was about to end, and then didn't. And the more likely they've internalized the lesson that in crises like these, how well they come out of it depends largely on their attitude and how they apply themselves to getting through it. And so we see that with the older and older age groups, the anxiety and depression numbers are lower and lower.
This post might sound a bit ranty, and like I am projecting, and I'd be lying if I tried to claim there weren't threads of that woven through it. But it is not my intention for this to be just a "toughen up you whippersnappers and get off my lawn!" type post. No, if I had to have a message for the youngest of adults, it's this: I get it. The world just got turned upside down an nobody knows what's coming next. But, the future is not over, and things will get better. There are still opportunities to be found, and you _can_ come out of this stronger.