Our world is going mad: the epidemic of mental disorders has engulfed humanity

According to the latest data, the world population has exceeded 8 billion people — we are many. Indeed, we are very many. Look at the society around you, at your loved ones, acquaintances, friends, and colleagues. Now consider this: every eighth person on the street suffers from mental disorders. More than 1 billion people.

These are confirmed estimates, according to the latest global analysis from the Global Burden of Disease 2023 — their data indicates that about 1.17 billion people live with mental illnesses. This is an absolute increase of 95% since the 1990s. Before the internet era. Before the era of social networks. Before real life began to be replaced by ersatz reality, a fake, fictional digital world. A surrogate of your life, where in the modern world you are constantly under the scrutiny of neuro-algorithmic systems.

According to scientific data, mental disorders have already become the leading cause of disability and incapacity in the world. For instance, in 2023 alone, approximately 322 million people suffered from depression, and the number of sufferers sharply increased after the pandemic. In the first year of COVID-19, depression soared by +27%, and anxiety disorders by +25.6% compared to 2019.

To prepare this material, I decided not to blindly trust international global analyses but to verify the information personally among my audience. An independent survey was conducted on social networks, with 781 participants.

I asked the question: “Do you feel psychological fatigue, a sense of loss, and emotional exhaustion amidst the general chaos around? Rate your condition on a scale from 1 to 10.”

The results are as follows:

57% rated from 7 to 10 points — people are in a zone of pronounced psychological fatigue and emotional exhaustion.

46% chose from 8 to 10 points — meaning almost every second person rates their condition as very severe.

25% rated the maximum 10 points.

In total, 88% rated from 5 to 10 points. Here, the 5th level was deliberately marked as a loss of reality perception, as psychologically, destabilization of the psyche can begin with such sensations.

Only 10% of people are in the range from 1 to 4.

Also noteworthy is a very indicative moment: the two largest responses are 10 points (25%) and 5 points (26%). This means the sample is essentially concentrated around two states: an already very severe psychological state and an intermediate point where a person is still holding on but feels the unreality of what is happening and the accumulation of fatigue.

This survey managed to confirm that these results fully align with other studies. Everything is indeed very bad.

Now I want to turn to real scientific reviews to try to understand the problem comprehensively. I have already mentioned the scale of mental disorders in the world from the Global Burden of Disease, and it is worth emphasizing again that these disorders have become the largest health problem for humanity and one of the main reasons people live for years with limited work capacity and reduced quality of life.

Another important work was published in Nature Medicine titled “Global economic burden of depression in 154 countries from 2025 to 2050” — these are the researchers' data on how many people suffer specifically from depression in 2023 — a staggering 322 million people. Among men, about 127 million cases were estimated, and among women — about 196 million. Researchers also calculated the economic consequences: from 2025 to 2050, depression could lead to approximately 12 trillion dollars in cumulative losses to the global economy. This happens because people's ability to work fully and, consequently, participate in the economy decreases.

Another scientific work, a very high-quality meta-analysis, was published in 2021 titled “Global prevalence of mental health issues among the general population during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic” — it combined studies from 32 countries with almost 400,000 participants to assess the pandemic's impact on society. During the initial stage of the pandemic, signs of depression were found in about 28%, anxiety in 26.9%, post-traumatic stress in 24.1%, and sleep problems in 27.6%.

To simplify: during the pandemic, every fourth participant in the studies reported pronounced symptoms of depression or anxiety.

As we have understood, serious problems began, specifically the explosive growth of mental problems in society, precisely with the pandemic. Although there was a stable growth before, if we consider it from the 1990s. But absolute acceleration is recorded from the beginning of global chaos! Initially, it was the pandemic, and at the time of preparing this material — the race of states for leadership in the fourth technological revolution and, as a result, global political and social chaos in the world.

I now want to turn to the topic of nature protection, as we are fighting against environmental problems, and in this area, there is also an interesting scientific review.

The work is titled “Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey” — researchers surveyed 10,000 young people aged 16 to 25 from ten countries. According to their data, 59% were very or extremely worried about climate change. More than half experienced feelings such as fear, anxiety, sadness, anger, helplessness, or guilt due to the climate crisis. More than 45% said that concerns about climate change already negatively affect their daily life and ability to function normally.

This means that young people are experiencing serious anxiety related to environmental issues, indicating that people are well aware of the planetary collapse and understand that all these problems fall on their generation. But due to the lack of solutions and understanding of how to influence this, young people fall into anxiety, which provokes mental disorders.

Now, on top of the existing data we have reviewed, I want to move to more specialized ones. There is a term called “doomscrolling” — constant reading of bad news. Researchers studied people who constantly scroll through social media feeds and look for negative news, and the phenomenon itself was named “doomscrolling.”

It turned out that the more pronounced the doomscrolling, the more it is associated with psychological distress, addiction to social networks, and fear of missing out, and the lower the indicators of life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and inner harmony.

It even seems obvious, but few fully understand the seriousness of such a phenomenon on the scale of our entire society. Amid the growing scale of mental deviations in people, many fall even more into dependence on news and literally daily consume news about wars, disasters, crises, and various threats, which accelerates and exacerbates psychological tension, including worsening well-being.

Now let's turn to a fresh study from 2026, very relevant. The work is titled “Dataveillance inhibits legitimate communication: causal evidence for chilling effects” — it presents very serious experimental data. Over six weeks, 827 people repeatedly encountered information about digital surveillance of user actions. When people were reminded of the possibility of digital surveillance, they became less free in expressing opinions, searching for information, and disclosing information about themselves online. The mere feeling that a person's digital actions could be monitored and that what they say or find could potentially have consequences can make a person limit their own behavior — even if it is completely legal.

Researchers call this the chilling effect — a mechanism of social engineering used by states and transnational corporations to control society! When you see a “caught culprit apologizing on camera in tears,” — this is it, these are the methods of social engineering that provoke a “chilling effect” in society and suppress any activity.

And against the backdrop of an already large-scale growth of mental problems, naturally, this further accelerates anxiety disorders, depressive states, and so on. I think everyone understands these things.

Can I say that our world today is indeed experiencing an epidemic of mental suffering? I came across estimates from the World Health Organization, predicting that by 2030, depression will cost the global economy trillions of dollars. We already see the consequences — from large cities to remote villages — people are increasingly depressed: wars, pandemics, climate cataclysms, informational chaos, and government pressure form a “perfect storm” for the psyche.

And our independent survey, in which over 700 people participated, fully confirms this. Yes, I can confidently say that there is no “global conspiracy” to lie about the growing number of depressive states — this is confirmed by our independent assessment. By our people.

The scale of this problem is colossal. And against the backdrop of ongoing and rapidly developing chaos, these processes will worsen.

Now the world is becoming even more digitalized: states integrate systems of totalitarian control, data registries, and “Big Brother” wants to know everything about your life — what you read, whom you talk to, how you move in real life. “Big Brother” wants to read your correspondence, have round-the-clock access to all dialogues and chats, hear, see, and feel you. To gain absolute power.

But such a “Big Brother” is not alone here — there are many, and each considers themselves more important. Therefore, they will sow chaos, engage in infighting among themselves, and tear society apart, driving the ordinary living person insane.

Is there a foreseeable situation in such conditions where mental deviations will decrease? Or will their growth continue until we all go mad?

I think now every reader will answer this question for themselves.

A small personal piece of advice for everyone who read this material to the end: seek harmony in the embrace of wild nature, do not hesitate to talk to the forest, sing along with the birds, follow the wind. Nature is our support and best psychologist in these difficult times.

© PAVEL PASHKOV