Psychiatrist: "Young people are more vulnerable to stress than older people"

Among women between the ages of 25 and 29, the number of sick people due to stress diagnoses has increased by 370 percent since 2011. It reports SVT's Assignment review.

- All people are affected by the society in which you live. In our society, we have unreasonable demands on the individual while placing high demands on achievement. Ideally, you have to solve your own problems and at the same time you can compare your performance on social media, which makes it easy to not get enough, says Ullakarin Nyberg, psychiatrist and physician.

She believes that young people today place extremely high demands on themselves.

- When you go through a life change, for example having a child, you still keep demanding that you perform at the same level. So this is really a problem, says Ullakarin Nyberg.

She says that the reaction to stress is the same regardless of age, but that it expresses itself differently.

- Young people are in a build-up phase and are more affected by what comes from outside. Young people have not built up their self-esteem, compare themselves more with each other and are more vulnerable than the elderly. Older people may in turn have a perspective on life and you know that it will work out. As a young person, you may think that you will always feel as bad as you do right now and that your life will always look that way - and then it can get really dangerous.

However, Ullakarin Nyberg believes that sometimes people are also a little too quick at stamping illnesses with stress.

- It is extremely important to find the people who are at risk of developing disease early, but not to tell a young person too early that "now you are sick and therefore I am writing you sick." You need help finding their tools and understand her own reactions, she says.

Sick leave for many?

- You may need a brief sick leave, but it should be combined with other efforts. I think it is too common for people to get sick leave and get drugs, but then they are not helped to understand themselves and see their own reactions as an asset that you can learn from.

Ullakarin Nyberg says that many young people are afraid of their psychological reactions.

- They think they need to seek professional help. It is good to seek help, but they should also end up right so that not everyone with stress problems ends up in psychiatry. Because it will never be possible to take care of everyone there, says Ullakarin Nyberg.