it might be a question of illness or other types of disorder (attention deficit, dyslexia etc) getting identified quicker or named where before a kid was just deemed disruptive or "a bad kid", or withdrawn, introverted, etc
and doctors possibly being quicker to prescribe drugs as a solution
at the same time, kids do seem to be a lot more anxious about everything
i mean, i remember being worried, nervous, cripplingly shy etc as a teenager - it's a traumatic time - but not to the point of dysfunction or self-harm.
but that kind of thing - self-harm, suicide attempts (and the odd actual suicide), kids seeing therapists etc - seems to be rife among the age group of my kids.
again perhaps it's something to do with the helicopter-style over-parenting that both makes kids less able to cope by themselves, but also encourages parents to fret, cough up money for therapy, etc
but i don't think it's entirely that - it's the culture, it's phones and social media, it's the lack of positive images of the future, ambient fear
well my generation had the nuclear bomb - and already in the 1970s worries about overpopulation, resources depletion, pollution, etc
but it all seems a lot more urgent and imminent, the impending cataclysm