49.5% Of Youth in India Deal with Emotional Distress Alone; Only 9.2% Seek Professional Help, Reveals Mpower2026 Survey
~Released on World Suicide Prevention Day (Sept 10th), the Unpack Your Emotional Baggagesurvey finds that youth aged 18 to 25 years keep difficult emotions to themselves, and only 13.6% report receiving non-judgmental support~
Chennai: Despite increasing awareness of mental health, young Indians still face emotional challenges, according to a new survey by Mpower, a social enterprise and mental health service provider under the Aditya Birla Education Trust.
The survey titled “Unpack Your Emotional Baggage: A Call to Action for Young Indians to Seek Help During Emotional Distress” gathered responses from young adults aged 18 to 25 from ten key regions in India – Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Jaipur. The study explores emotional stressors, coping strategies, and social reactions to distress among young adults. It lays bare a widespread disconnect between mental health awareness and their willingness or ability to seek assistance.
Although public discussions about mental well-being have grown, findings from the Mpower survey reveal that 49.5% of Indian youth still hide difficult emotions and attempt to deal with them entirely on their own, while a mere 9.2% have sought professional help.
The reluctance to seek support also extends to how young people respond to their own distress, mostly trying to conceal it. 40.9% said they tell others “I’m fine” when they are not. Many reported avoiding conversations about their feelings altogether or keeping themselves constantly occupied to distract themselves from what they are experiencing.
The survey highlightswhen young adults do open up, dismissive reactions are common. Beyond the dominant ‘be strong’ response (40.4%), young people frequently encounter advice telling them they are ‘overthinking’ or urging them to ‘focus on work or studies.’ Conversely, only 13.6% reported that someone listened without judgment and provided support
“Mental health is far more than a clinical diagnosis like depression or anxiety—it is a way of living, found in how we handle inner thoughts, nurture relationships, and release emotional pain,” said Dr. Zirak Marker, Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatrist, and Chief Medical Adviser at Mpower. “When young people are constantly told to ‘be strong,’ ‘focus on work,’ or ‘stop overthinking,’ their pain gets brushed off. Hiding distress and burying emotions creates a dangerous internal build-up that, in severe cases, can lead to overwhelming despair and even suicide. True prevention means moving past quick brush-offs and embedding mental health education into school curricula for all grades. Only by building empathy and acceptance early can we give young people the safe space, dignity, and professional care they need to health.”
The survey also highlights a stark gender split in how emotional baggage is carried:
- Women report higher internal emotional burdens, led by constant overthinking (60% female share), self-doubt (56%), and body image concerns (69%).
- Men show higher representation in external stressors, including work-related stress (57% male share) and financial insecurity (54%).
- Notably, 60% of respondents who do not realize something is wrong until another person points it out were male, highlighting a crucial need for emotional self-awareness among young men.
Alongside this, the survey shows how emotional distress often manifests in everyday life. 47% people reported becoming angry or irritated more easily, followed by difficulty concentrating or enjoying things (36.7%) and an impact on daily work or routine (31.3%).
The survey makes one thing clear: raising awareness is no longer enough. On this World Suicide Prevention Day, the focus must shift from simply talking about mental health to building environments where young people feel safe taking action. Preventing suicide begins long before a crisis occurs it starts by dismantling the stigma, judgment, and dismissive responses that force young adults to suffer in silence. By replacing quick brush-offs with active, non-judgmental support, society can bridge the gap between awareness and help-seeking, ensuring no young person feels that carrying their burden alone is their only choice.
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About Aditya Birla Education Trust:
Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET), founded by Mrs. Neerja Birla, is committed to positively impacting lives through education, mental health and menstrual health initiatives. Guided by its vision to create a more inclusive and stigma-free world, ABET works to create meaningful opportunities for individuals and communities to learn, grow and thrive.
Through its education initiatives — Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA), Aditya Birla Education Academy (ABEA), The Aditya Birla Integrated School (TABIS), and Nalanda — ABET seeks to advance holistic, inclusive and future-ready learning while supporting diverse learning needs and empowering educators.
Through Mpower, ABET works to transform the mental health landscape by building awareness, reducing stigma, expanding access to care and strengthening mental health capacity across communities and institutions. Ujaas addresses menstrual health by promoting awareness, dignity, sustainable menstrual practices and access to affordable products.
With a focus on learning, healing and growth, ABET brings together education, mental health and social impact to create lasting change and empower the changemakers of tomorrow.
About Mpower
Mpower, an initiative of Aditya Birla Education Trust, is one of South Asia’s largest privatemental-health initiatives, with a distinctive focus on mental-health literacy, capacitybuilding, community outreach and access to care. Through its work across awareness,advocacy, prevention, intervention and support, Mpower has touched over 7 million lives todate. Its work spans clinical services, mental-health awareness and outreach programmes,capacity building, and school, workplace and community interventions, with a focus onmaking mental-health support more accessible and creating greater openness aroundconversations on mental wellbeing.Mpowered Voices is Mpower’s platform for lived experiences, creating spaces forindividuals to share their personal journeys and perspectives around mental health, whileencouraging empathy, reducing stigma and making conversations around mental wellbeingmore relatable.