The Appointment That Would Have Raised Eyebrows a Decade Ago
Picture this: a 29-year-old product manager living in Pune is making her very first therapy appointment for Tuesday afternoon. She is not experiencing any personal crises, has a healthy relationship, and does not experience issues with work-related problems. She had a relatively good night’s sleep last night. However, she has made the decision to go to therapy because she believes she notices a pattern of behavior in herself that can be considered detrimental - people pleasing. The young woman feels the need to explore why she behaves the way she does before losing more from the process than she already has.
While a decade ago such an introduction would sound out of place at a dinner table, today it seems rather normal. There was something about Indian millennials, the generation born somewhere between 1981 and 1996, that changed when it came to how they viewed their internal life. While the practice of therapy, either online or face-to-face, was once associated with some kind of stigma or considered the practice for only those with serious disorders, today it has become a common part of many adults’ daily lives.
So what actually drove this shift, and why now?
Understanding the Stigma
It is easier to comprehend how much things have been altered by comprehending the difficulties faced by the millennial generation. Unlike previous generations who did not recognize mental well-being as an issue to begin with, millennials have had to deal with societies that viewed mental well-being as a topic of embarrassment. As stated by the National Mental Health Survey of India, 2016, psychotic disorders, depressive disorders, and anxiety disorders are common in society today, and seeking help for these remains rare.
Issues concerning mental health were always understood in terms of karma, personal weakness, or failure on a spiritual level. Often, these issues were not seen as medical problems but as problems of self-control, an attitude that was supported by the finding that one in four people in a national survey thought that “evil spirits” caused mental illness.
Even affectionate families tended to discourage open discussions of internal struggles out of concerns over the social ramifications. As a result, a tradition of fear-mongering and misunderstanding was established which has been passed down as the background of the millennial experience.
The Forces That Quietly Changed Everything
COVID-19 and the Breakdown of Collective Taboos
While social stigma acted as the barrier to discussions on mental health issues, the pandemic became the catalyst for its breakdown. There were no biases on how the pandemic affected the mental wellbeing of people. In whatever socio-economic level, city, and age group, they all underwent a collective experience of disruption such as unemployment, quarantine, grief, uncertainty, and separation from their usual support network. According to WHO, there was a 25% rise in stress, depression, and anxiety cases worldwide in the first year of lockdowns.
Besides the figures, what the pandemic has achieved is making the experience of suffering publicly visible. When an entire generation experiences the same thing at once, it becomes incredibly hard to keep telling the lie that asking for assistance means you’re “weak” individually. The concept of mental well-being ceased being something private and became a universal human experience, thus allowing many to think about asking for help.
Social Media - An Unexpected Influencer
India has one of the largest user bases when it comes to social media platforms, and millennials form a significant percentage of those who use it actively. As per the study conducted by a mental health foundation in 2021, around 65 percent of the people surveyed listed social media as the medium for their knowledge of mental health. This is a staggering figure. For a generation brought up on advice to never share their problems with others, suddenly, Instagram pages were discussing attachment theories, YouTube videos were demystifying anxiety, and Twitter feeds were casually referencing therapy.
The Bollywood industry made its contribution as well. With the release of the movie Dear Zindagi, the Bollywood cinema got a new perspective on treatment and psychotherapy in general: an honest depiction of therapy as a method of understanding oneself. The moment when Deepika Padukone talked about her depression in 2015 - when such disclosure was still perceived as a considerable social risk - is a good example of a celebrity showing vulnerability. It is worth mentioning that stars play an important role in the psychological life of millennial and Generation Z generations.
A Generation Shaped to Seek
In addition to all of these factors outside the individuals, the millennials themselves were born with a different psychological disposition than other preceding generations. According to research carried out by the American Psychiatric Association (2019), 35% of millennials felt stressed and sought help in therapy, whereas only 26% of Gen X and 22% of Baby Boomers did so. They grew up at a time of heightened individualism and personal expression, and thus the concept of working on oneself seemed to be much more in line with their own beliefs. George et al. (2025) refers to this generation as pioneers of the digital age and notes their openness towards psychological services facilitated by digital means.
What Indian Millennials Are Actually Bringing to Therapy
What may well be most interesting about the latest trend in seeking therapy is that a large percentage of individuals who come to seek help are not in immediate distress. Clinical psychologists throughout India have observed a significant increase in the demand for something akin to wellness therapy where the client presents himself/herself aware of the behavioral problem that he/she is developing. These include - the need to please everyone at all costs, the anger which comes out at inappropriate times, the trouble with setting boundaries.
According to the research conducted by Khandelwal et al. (2024), almost all respondents (92.2%) viewed psychotherapy as essential. Moreover, what was interesting in their reasons for viewing therapy positively was that the factors mentioned included enhanced clarity of thought, increased inner calmness, improved understanding of one’s emotions, and overall better quality of life.
These stresses that drive the demand are genuine and have been proven within the literature:
- Insecurity related to finances and careers, exacerbated by rising costs of living and competition in the workplace
- Patterns of relating that formed in childhood, characterized by the tendency to please others, poor conflict resolution skills, and emotional suppression, which eventually leads to resentment
- Issues with self-identity in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and family issues, particularly those that emerge as attempts at reconciling tradition with reality
- The contradiction of loneliness in a more technologically advanced world, where constant availability through technology creates feelings of loneliness and disconnection
- Achieving success amidst stiff competition
Insights into the Cultural Transition
The data paints a picture of substantial progress being made. According to an ITC study conducted in 2023, 47% of Gen Z and millennial members in India are either undergoing psychotherapy or taking psychiatric medication at present. The number of internet searches for psychiatrists in Delhi has increased by 96% over the last ten years. In one longitudinal study, there was an increase in the number of individuals willing to seek help from 54% in 2018 to 92% in 2021 (Today, 2025).
Studies conducted on generational cohorts and published in the Vinayasadhana Journal (2025) provide an understanding of these trends from a development perspective. Every generation, according to the research, has different needs for mental wellbeing influenced by the environment in which they develop. The current generation, millennials, is growing in the digital era and under financial strain due to student loans, unstable employment opportunities, and increasing costs of living, resulting in high levels of anxiety and work-related burnout that their parents did not acknowledge openly. Their willingness to seek help reflects a generational openness that previous cohorts did not have access to.
When one starts discussing therapy casually, then it opens up a dialogue for others to follow suit. Each time an individual discusses his/her own therapy, they do much more than simply discuss their personal issues.
Taking the First Step: What Getting Started in Therapy Actually Looks Like
For anyone who sees themselves here and considers taking up therapy for the first time, the whole affair may be much more feasible today than it was just a handful of years ago. The online world makes therapy geographically closer, less expensive, and less publicly evident. There are a number of considerations that you should know before starting:
- Therapy works well if one is willing to show up with some honesty regarding what they wish to resolve, which can range from something they have been struggling with for a while, an experience they recently underwent, or their desire to better know themselves.
- While the technique used by a therapist is important, the connection with the therapist counts just as much; if one feels they do not click after a few sessions, trying another therapist becomes completely valid.
- Therapy is a process, and progress takes time and is not always straightforward, with breakthroughs usually occurring in the interlude between therapy sessions.
- Sharing the experiences of therapy openly with people around one helps bring about cultural change for others seeking the same support.
Conclusion
The trend with the youth in India and therapy is not a passing one. Rather, it is something that will stick around because it is about the generation renegotiating the very meaning of taking care of oneself and what kind of problems one should speak about. The youth of today have been brought up in homes and environments that were accustomed to emotional repression, as well as economic stress that differs in the form and intensity previous generations went through, and the experience of a worldwide pandemic that made them confront the reality of their interior world. It is well established through research that expressing needs rather than repressing is necessary for development in interpersonal and individual lives. A truth, that the newer generations are more accepting towards.
As conversations around mental health continue to evolve, platforms such as Rocket Health are also making therapy more accessible, approachable, and easier to seek without shame or hesitation. In many ways, this shift is not simply about more people going to therapy, but about an entire generation choosing openness over silence, and emotional awareness over endurance.
References
Bhatia, R. (2024, July 10). How Gen Z and Millennials are Breaking the Mental Health Stigma? | The Established. The Established.
Bhatia, S. (2025, October 25). Full Text | More young Indians are opting for therapy as mental health stigma is fading - The wire. The Wire.
George, T., Parayil, T., Dey, A. M., Neuropathways Institute, Dharmaram College, & CHRIST (Deemed to be University). (2025). Understanding Generational cohorts in the Digital Era: Focus on Gen Z trends and therapeutic concerns. In Vinayasādhana: Dharmaram Journal of Psycho-Spiritual Formation.
Godbole, T. (2024, March 1). Why India’s Gen Z and millennials feel more stressed.
Impact of Therapies on Millennials: A different perspective. (2024). REST Journal on Banking Accounting and Business, 3(2, June 2024), 7–13. <https://doi.org/10.46632/jbab/3/2/2>
Today, T. (2025, November 6). Inside the Minds of Gen Z: What India’s Young Adults Want from Therapy. Telangana Today. https://telanganatoday.com/inside-the-minds-of-gen-z-what-indias-young-adults-want-from-therapy
