Not everyone needs to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety says Tony Blair as he tells Brits to ‘stop medicalising the ups and downs of life’
Former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has warned against over-medicalising the ‘ups and downs’ of life.
Sir Tony, who served as PM from 1997 to 2007, said there is a danger of telling too many people going through life’s normal challenges that they are suffering a mental health condition.
It comes amid a surge in the number of young people being diagnosed with mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression in recent years.
Nearly a quarter of children in England now have a ‘probable mental disorder’, according to a recent report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
Experts have previously highlighted the impact of the Covid pandemic, and the disruption it caused to children’s education and social lives, alongside the cost-of-living crisis and social media as damaging kids’ mental wellbeing.
But speaking on the Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future podcast, Sir Tony said: ‘I think we have become very, very focused on mental health and with people self-diagnosing.
‘We’re spending vastly more on mental health now than we did a few years ago. And it’s hard to see what the objective reasons for that are.’
The former PM added: ‘Life has its ups and downs and everybody experiences those. And you’ve got to be careful of encouraging people to think they’ve got some sort of condition other than simply confronting the challenges of life.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned against over-medicalising the ‘ups and downs’ of life
‘We need a proper conversation about this because you really cannot afford to be spending the amount of money we’re spending on mental health.’
Sir Tony’s calls come after striking new figures show that show the number of children referred for specialist anxiety treatment has doubled in just four years.
More than 200,000 children in England — or 4,000 every week — were waiting to begin treatment in the past year.
This is up more than 100,000 on 2019/2020 when almost 99,000 were stuck in the queue.
Experts, who labelled the figures ‘shocking’, today blamed exam worries, social media’s influence and the cost of living crisis on the ‘staggering’ rise.
But they warned the stats may only be the tip of the iceberg, with other children suffering in silence under the radar.
The new figures, from NHS England, found there were 204,526 new referrals for patients aged 17 or under where the primary cause was anxiety in 2023/24.
By comparison, in 2019-20 — the year before Covid struck — this stood at 98,953. In 2016-17 it was 3,879.
Striking new figures show that show the number of children referred for specialist anxiety treatment has doubled in just four years
More than 200,000 children in England — or 4,000 every week — were waiting to begin treatment in the past year
Andy Bell, the chief executive of the charity the Centre for Mental Health said at the time: ‘These stark figures underline the urgency of addressing children and young people’s mental health today.
He added: ‘Our research indicates that academic pressures, particularly those related to exams, have intensified in the past decade.
‘Rising levels of poverty and inequality have also contributed to increased anxiety among children and young people, including factors such as financial stress within households and the impact of racism.
‘Evidence also suggests that online harms, such as cyberbullying and pressures around appearance, are relentless and can fuel anxiety in children.
‘The pandemic has amplified these pressures on children and young people by disrupting their routines and increasing feelings of isolation and uncertainty about the world and their futures.’
Despite this, there is concern among health chiefs that young people are being branded with mental health diagnoses inappropriately.
Last year the NHS launched a taskforce to examine a concerning rise in children and adults being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Experts have warned rogue private clinics are over-diagnosing the condition and have questioned the widespread prescribing of powerful stimulant drugs to treat it.
Last year the NHS launched a taskforce to examine a concerning rise in children and adults being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
The booming market is thought to have been fuelled by celebrities such as model Katie Price, Love Island star Olivia Attwood and actress Sheridan Smith talking about their ADHD ordeal and waits of up to ten years for an assessment on the NHS.
Social media sites are also full of users telling how medication helped to calm them down, control their fidgeting and boost their concentration.
The number of patients on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has doubled in six years, with 230,000 in England taking the drugs last year.
The biggest rise has been in young adults, with treatment increasing five-fold among those aged 25 to 39 since 2015.
The taskforce will bring together leaders from health, education and justice to better understand how many people are affected and how to improve their care.
They will investigate ‘the rate of growth within the independent sector and the potential variation in the service models and thresholds being used’, and collect data to ‘fully understand the size of the challenge’.
