Why Are Young Indians More Anxious Than Ever? A Psychotherapist Explains

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Something has shifted for young people in India over the last several years, and it goes beyond the usual pressures of growing up. The anxiety many young Indians are carrying today feels different, both in scale and intensity and understanding why requires looking honestly at the world they’re actually navigating right now.

Dr Chandni Tugnait, MD (A.M), Psychotherapist, Life Alchemist, Coach & Healer, Founder & Director, Gateway of Healing, believes several social, economic and emotional factors are converging to create a generation that feels more anxious than ever before.

The Pressure To Have It All Figured Out

There is an unspoken timeline that many young Indians are trying to keep up with, one that expects academic clarity, career direction, financial stability and a visible sense of purpose, all by an age when most people are still figuring out the basics of who they are.

What makes this even harder is that social media constantly puts everyone else’s milestones on display. Someone your age has just been promoted, while someone else has bought a flat. What was once a fairly private process of figuring life out has turned into something that feels uncomfortably public and competitive, even when nobody is actually keeping score.

Dr Tugnait says this constant comparison can quietly fuel anxiety, leaving young people feeling as though they are always falling behind.

Being Constantly Connected Takes A Real Toll

Young people today are reachable at all hours, and while that may sound like a minor inconvenience, the effect on the nervous system over time is anything but minor.

There is always something to reply to, something to scroll through, some piece of news to process or another opinion to absorb. The mind rarely gets a genuine break from stimulation, and that sustained, low-level mental noise gradually wears people down in ways that are difficult to recognise until anxiety is already well established.

As Dr Tugnait explains, true rest has become increasingly difficult to access, even when there’s technically enough time for it.

The Gap Between Effort And Outcome

Many young Indians grew up believing that if they worked hard enough and made the right choices, things would eventually fall into place. Many have done exactly that, yet still find themselves navigating job markets that don’t reflect their effort, housing costs that feel increasingly out of reach and a general sense that the goalposts have shifted.

That gap between what was promised and what is actually available has become a quiet but significant source of distress and one that isn’t discussed nearly enough.

Relationships And Identity Are More Complicated Now

Young people today are navigating questions around identity, relationships and belonging in ways that are far more open and far less defined, than previous generations experienced.

That openness is undoubtedly valuable, but it also comes with its own pressures. When there are fewer fixed scripts to follow, the responsibility of figuring out what you truly want, who you want to be and what kind of life makes sense for you rests entirely on the individual. That’s a heavy burden to carry, especially without much guidance along the way.

The Silence Around It Makes It Worse

Despite real progress in conversations around mental health, anxiety is still dismissed in many Indian homes and workplaces as overthinking, weakness or ingratitude.

When young people cannot express what they’re feeling without being told to simply “push through it,” the anxiety doesn’t disappear. Instead, it becomes internalised, making it even harder to recognise and manage.

According to Dr Tugnait, creating spaces where young people feel heard rather than judged is one of the most important steps towards addressing the growing mental health crisis.

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