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Being young does not necessarily equate to being happy
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By Jun Ji-hye
No. of young people diagnosed with depression doubles over 5 years
A man in his 20s, who was hired by one of the world's major IT companies three years ago, quit his job last year.
He made the difficult decision two months after he was diagnosed with depression. It was his mother that persuaded him to quit the job.
“After learning about my illness, my mother told me to quit and live with her. She said she does not want to lose her son,” the man said, noting that he thought about ending his life multiple times even in a day while working at his office in Seoul.
“I was under too much pressure due to work in addition to interpersonal relationships,” he said. “I was just putting up with it, but one day, the thought occurred to me of what it all adds up to if I die.”
The man wrote his story on Blind, the anonymous workplace community app, and nearly 300 people responded with comments, sharing similar experiences.
The post coincides with an increasing number of people in their 20s diagnosed with depression in recent years.
According to data that Rep. Nam In-soon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea received from the National Health Insurance Service, the number of people diagnosed with depression in total exceeded the 1 million mark for the first time last year, up 32.9 percent from 2018.
Those in their 20s accounted for the largest portion at 185,942, or 18.6 percent, followed by 160,108 in their 30s and 143,090 in their 60s.
The number of people diagnosed with depression in their 20s nearly doubled compared to 2018 when the figure stood at 97,675.
The problem appeared to be more serious for women, as the number of females diagnosed with depression in their 20s increased by 110.65 percent from 57,696 in 2018 to 121,534 last year.
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Experts said there are a variety of reasons for the increasing diagnoses among young people, citing an unemployment crisis, the polarization of wealth and excessive stress.
Kwak Geum-joo, a professor of psychology at Seoul National University, said unlike teenagers in Western countries who tend to be afforded diverse experiences and seek independence from their parents as soon as possible as a given, many Korean teenagers are living under the control of their parents until they graduate from high school.
“Then, they suddenly reach adulthood, with the mental state of many of them not ready for that,” Kwak said. “Under these circumstances, young people here can easily fall into despair when they face difficulties at universities or in the workplace.”
The professor said the economic downturn and COVID-19 pandemic have both clearly aggravated difficulties faced by young people.
“In particular, the pandemic, which was anticipated by none of us, isolated many from society, as companies cut back on hiring and many workers had to go on unpaid leave,” she said. “Even after being employed, people underwent difficulties for various reasons including hyper-competition and uncertainty about the future.”
Depression is sometimes referred to as "the common cold of mental disorders," meaning that anyone can get the illness. However, Kwak noted, that it does not mean that it is a mild illness that can be cured without hospital treatment.
“Most people diagnosed with depression tend to want to hide their illness, but they should not do that, because the faster they get treatment, the faster they can return to their daily lives,” she said.
“Companies and the government should together work to change this social atmosphere and encourage people to have regular checkups in the hope of helping to identify mental illnesses at the early stage.”
Park Jin-kyung, a neuropsychiatry professor at Kyung Hee University Hospital in Gangdong District in Seoul, also said anyone who feels anxiousness and to whom everything is a bother, who spends days in a state of letahrgy or who has interpersonal problems, should suspect depression.
“In that case, they should see a doctor and express their concerns,” Park said.