Something has gone profoundly wrong in the mental health of young people. Figures that would have seemed unthinkable twenty years ago are now normalised: one in six children in the UK meets the clinical threshold for an anxiety disorder. Referrals to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) have risen by over 50% in five years. Waiting lists stretch, in some regions, to two years.
And the pandemic has accelerated what was already a crisis.
What is driving the surge?
The factors are well-documented. Social media creates conditions of constant comparison, social threat, and performative identity in brains that are not yet equipped to manage them. Academic pressure — driven by high-stakes testing, university entrance anxiety, and parental expectation — compounds physiological stress. Sleep deprivation, reduced physical activity, and the collapse of unstructured outdoor play remove the natural outlets that previous generations relied on.
But these are triggers, not causes. The cause of anxiety disorder — in children as in adults — is the same physiological mechanism: a hyper-vigilant threat-response that has become stuck in the "on" position. The triggers vary. The mechanism does not.
What schools are doing — and why it isn't working
Schools have responded, with genuine care, by rolling out mindfulness programmes, embedding wellbeing lessons in the curriculum, and training staff in Mental Health First Aid. These are not useless. But they are symptom management at scale. They teach children to cope with anxiety — not to resolve it.
The fundamental problem is that CBT-derived approaches, which dominate school-based mental health provision, address cognitive symptoms (anxious thoughts) rather than the physiological mechanism generating those symptoms. A child can learn to challenge their thoughts perfectly and still go home in the grip of anxiety disorder.
The generational cost
Anxiety disorder in childhood, left unresolved, does not simply disappear with age. Untreated adolescent anxiety disorder is the single strongest predictor of adult anxiety disorder, depression, and substance misuse. The children struggling in classrooms today are, without appropriate intervention, the adults who will cycle through NHS treatments for decades.
The cost — to individuals, families, the NHS, and the economy — is staggering. The cost of getting this right, now, is a fraction of what inaction will eventually demand.
What resolution — not management — looks like
Complete recovery from anxiety disorder is possible for children and adolescents, and it typically happens faster than in adults. The developing nervous system is highly neuroplastic: it responds rapidly to the right conditions.
LAR Coaching works with young people aged 12 and above. Sessions are coach-led, adapted to the age and developmental stage of the client, and focused entirely on resolution — not coping. Parents and carers are involved throughout.
If your child or teenager is struggling with anxiety, the question worth asking is not "how can we help them manage better?" but "what would it take for them to recover completely?"
That question has an answer. We'd welcome the opportunity to share it with you.