NewsVoir
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 1: Despite growing awareness and conversations around mental health, young Indians continue to navigate emotional distress largely on their own, according to a new survey, ‘Unpack Your Emotional Baggage,’ by Mpower, the largest private mental health service provider in India under the Aditya Birla Education Trust, with a distinctive focus on mental-health literacy, capacity building, community outreach and access to care.
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The survey gathered responses from young adults aged 18 to 25 across ten cities, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai and Jaipur. It explores emotional stressors, coping strategies, help-seeking behaviours and how young people experience responses to their distress. The findings reveal a significant gap between growing awareness of mental health and young people’s willingness or ability to seek support.
Although public conversations around mental well-being have grown, 49.5% of respondents said they hide difficult emotions and attempt to deal with them entirely on their own, while only 9.2% reported having sought professional help. The survey also points to a deeper gap between experiencing distress and being equipped to recognise and respond to it.
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Nearly seven in ten respondents (67.3%) said they had felt hopeless or lost hope at some point in their lives. Among those who experienced hopelessness, academic pressure or exams emerged as the most commonly cited reason (58.4%), followed by uncertainty about the future (14.3%) and relationship issues (10.4%).
The reluctance to seek support is also reflected in how young people respond to their own distress. Over 40% said they tell others “I’m fine” when they are not. Many also reported avoiding conversations about their feelings or keeping themselves constantly occupied to distract themselves from what they are experiencing.
For those who do open up, the responses they encounter can further discourage help-seeking. 40.4% said the response they received was to “be strong,” while others were told they were “overthinking” or encouraged to focus on work or studies. In contrast, only 13.6% said someone listened without judgment and provided support.
Speaking on World Suicide Prevention Day, Mrs Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson, Aditya Birla Education Trust, said, “Forty percent of the young people we spoke to have been told to just be strong. Only nine percent felt able to seek professional help. Somewhere between those two numbers is where we’re failing them. We keep waiting for a crisis before we act. The fix is catching this early, in schools, before silence becomes the only coping mechanism a young person knows.”
The findings also highlight a gap in preparedness when young people encounter distress among their peers. 62.2% said they would listen without judgment if a friend reached out to them with suicidal thoughts. However, only 6.9% said they would try to find someone else for the person to talk to, while 22.3% said they would inform the person’s parents and leave the responsibility with them. This points to the need to move beyond awareness towards practical emotional literacy, equipping young people with the confidence and skills to recognise distress, respond appropriately and connect peers to professional support.
The survey also reveals gender differences in reported emotional stressors:
– Women reported higher representation across internal emotional stressors, including constant overthinking (60% female share), self-doubt (56%) and body image concerns (69%).
– Men showed higher representation across external stressors, including work-related stress (57% male share) and financial insecurity (54%).
– Notably, 60% of respondents who said they do not realise something is wrong until another person points it out were male, highlighting the importance of strengthening emotional self-awareness among young men.
The emotional burden also manifests in everyday life. 47% of respondents reported becoming angry or irritated more easily, followed by difficulty concentrating or enjoying things (36.7%) and an impact on daily work or routine (31.3%).
The findings suggest that raising awareness alone is not enough. The focus now needs to shift from simply talking about mental health to creating environments where young people feel safe recognising distress, seeking support and supporting one another.
Preventing suicide begins long before a crisis. It starts with creating environments that reduce stigma, judgment and dismissive responses that can leave young people suffering in silence. By replacing quick brush-offs with active, non-judgmental support, society can help bridge the gap between awareness and help-seeking, ensuring that carrying emotional distress alone does not become a young person’s only way of coping.
About MpowerMpower, an initiative of Aditya Birla Education Trust, is one of South Asia’s largest private mental-health initiatives, with a distinctive focus on mental-health literacy, capacity building, community outreach and access to care. Through its work across awareness, advocacy, prevention, intervention and support, Mpower has touched over 7 million lives to date.
Its work spans clinical services, mental-health awareness and outreach programmes, capacity building, and school, workplace and community interventions, with a focus on making mental-health support more accessible and creating greater openness around conversations on mental wellbeing.
Mpowered Voices is Mpower’s platform for lived experiences, creating spaces for individuals to share their personal journeys and perspectives around mental health, while encouraging empathy, reducing stigma and making conversations around mental wellbeing more relatable.
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