Anxiety, stress and worry about housing, the cost-of-living crises, work and education are driving most contacts to a text helpline for young people in Ireland.
Text About It is a free, anonymous, 24/7 messaging support service run by youth organisation spunout.
Funded by the HSE, the service, which was launched in 2020, supports those aged between 16 to 34 living in Ireland, but is open to people of all ages.
The busiest periods are on Sundays and Mondays between 10pm and 2am.
Where a texter is a risk to themselves or others, emergency services are alerted.
There have been over 2,800 emergency service interventions with the National Ambulance Service and gardaí since 2020.
In the past four years, the text helpline has engaged in over 210,000 text conversations with young people, and over seven million messages have been exchanged in total.
So far this year, there have been 36,000 text conversations.
The most pressing issues experienced by texters in 2024 - which can involve more than one reason for contacting the service - have been identified.
They include anxiety (27% of conversations), intimate partner relationships (22%), stress (21%), sadness (17%) and isolation & loneliness (17%).
Suicide (15.13%), family relationships (13.73%), depression (12.89%), friendship (9.75%) and self-esteem (9.11%), also feature in the top ten issues raised.
Those who have contacted the Text About It service so far this year did so because they had no one else to talk to (62%), or wanted to talk to someone who doesn't know them (46%).
Some 42% were more comfortable texting rather than talking and 32% were too embarrassed to talk to someone in person or over the phone.
A total of 26% of individuals did not have access to a therapist.
Feelings of stagnation or not reaching milestones at the same pace as their peers was raised by texters as contributing factors to feelings of loneliness and isolation experienced by texters.
They also frequently mentioned how a lack of independence and cramped living conditions add additional stress to relationships with their families because they are forced to live at home for longer due to the housing and cost-of-living crises.
Social media, and the pressure to conform to certain standards of achievement and beauty, as well as the amount of time spent online, were frequently mentioned as reasons for overwhelming feelings of stress and anxiousness.
Text About It has trained 1,583 volunteers from around Ireland who are supervised by professional clinical staff with training and experience in crisis intervention.
The Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health Mary Butler noted the importance of providing a for a generation that prefers to text than talk.
"Those who may worry about sharing their problems with friends or family can get immediate help, regardless of what might be bothering them through the service," she said.
CEO of spunout Ian Power said stress caused by the housing and cost-of-living crises, as well as pressures experienced in work and by the Leaving Cert, are frequently mentioned by texters during their conversations.
He said Text About It had continued to provide support "not only to people struggling with mental health issues but also to those who are overwhelmed by life in Ireland today and the day-to-day challenges they are facing".
The service can be accessed by free-texting HELLO to 50808, or through the spunout website.
