Fri 05 May 2023:

Since 2019, around 210,000 South Korean kids and teenagers have sought treatment for depression or anxiety disorders in hospitals, according to information released on Thursday by the National Health Insurance Service.

A total of 209,565 students under the age of 18 visited a doctor for either depression or anxiety problems from 2019 to the first half of 2022, according to information provided to Representative Kim Byong-wook of the ruling People Power Party, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Between 2019 and 2021, the number of these patients increased by 25.8%, from 50,433 to 63,463.

The number reached 46,504 just in the first half of 2022, according to the study.

By illness type, 135,068 adolescents received treatment for depression, while those for anxiety disorders came to 74,497 during the four year period.

High school students, or adolescents between the ages of 16 to 18, accounted for the majority of patients with 63.8 per cent.

“Mental health problems that occur during a person’s adolescent years can impact the individual’s family, social and work life throughout adulthood,” Kim said.

“Education authorities should pre-emptively monitor the mental health of students from their kindergarten and elementary school stages, and support health care measures accordingly.”

No Country for Young People

According to article published in Foreign Policy, in 2021, suicide has been the leading cause of death among young people in South Korea since 2007.

For the past two decades, it has had the highest suicide rate among developed nations: 24.6 suicides for every 100,000 people in South Korea in 2019, compared to 14.5 suicides in the United States in 2017.

Although South Korea’s older adults are still the most likely to die by suicide due to poverty and isolation, young people are rapidly dying by suicide. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of South Koreans under age 40 who took their own lives rose by 10 percent, according to the Korea National Statistics Office.

Then there’s the constant pressure and endless competition like the brutal educational race that begins in kindergarten. One in three middle and high school students in Seoul have thought of suicide because of academic burdens and worries over their futures and careers, according to the National Youth Policy Institute. It’s no wonder South Korea nearly tops the ranks in raising the world’s unhappiest children.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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