Photo by Riccardo.

According to studies carried out by US research and analytics company Gallup, rates of depression have been rising steadily and steeply since 2015. As of September 2025, 47.5 million Americans are reported to be suffering from depression. That is about 18.3% of the US population and represents a rise of 8 percentage points since the company’s first measurement in 2015.

While some of the increase can be traced to the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic, other factors are now seen as contributing to the crisis. The increases are concentrated among adults under 30. Over the past nine years this age group’s rate of depression has nearly doubled from 13% in 2017 to over 26% in 2025.

Low income is also a factor where reports of those with incomes below $24,000 have risen from 22% to 35% during the same time period.

Part of the rise may be attributed to the de-stigmatization of mental health issues which has led to as many as 70% of Americans now wanting to discuss both mental and physical health when seeing a medical provider. However, other factors such as food and housing insecurity, student debt, and increasing reports of loneliness are also contributing. Cost and accessibility barriers exacerbate the problem. 

Humboldt County’s mental health landscape

Depression can nearly always be traced back to some sort of loss in a person’s life.

Here in Humboldt County, our rate of depression among all adults was 20% in 2023, and along with Lake County, the highest in the state. Local licensed psychologist, Dr. Terri Jennings, shared some of her insights about the condition. Jennings specializes in working with youth and uses a therapeutic discipline known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She runs a ranch-based program offering Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), a mode of therapy dating back to the 1970’s that utilizes a horse’s keen attunement to human emotional signals learned over nearly 4,000 years of close association with us.

Jennings says that depression can nearly always be traced back to some sort of loss in a person’s life. It could be a death, a loss of employment, a relocation, a life-changing illness, or any number of other life events that a person experiences as a loss.

Symptoms of depression range from mild to severe and can be felt as general sadness and loss of experiencing pleasure in things that normally bring happiness, to disruption of sleep and appetite, and even a kind of numbness that makes it hard to get out of bed every day. Up to 29% of work absenteeism is attributable to depression among adults.

Treatment for depression can include medication and/or psychotherapy. While psychotherapy can be successful on its own, in cases of pervasive long-term depression, medication can be useful in bringing brain chemistry back into balance for many patients.

Jennings specializes in working with youth. Societal factors we all experience can play a role in childhood depression. A child’s depression may manifest as a “muted affect”, a lack of excitement or other emotions. At other times there may be anger, irritability, a change in schoolwork habits, or not wanting to hang out with friends.

Humans are not meant to be solitary.

Many kids in Humboldt, and other rural areas, are still recovering from the effects of isolation during the Covid 19 pandemic. Rural kids suffered more during the time of so-called online education due to being geographically isolated from their peers. Social development was affected, and kids are still finding their way back to normal social interaction. “Humans are social animals,” says Jennings. “I have never seen so many kids, as young as 5, wishing they were dead. Humans are not meant to be solitary.”

Issues around cell-phone use and screen time in general, sometimes referred to as an addiction, can also be blamed for depression. While superficially appearing to act as a way of connecting to others, multiple studies have shown that excessive screen time leads to loneliness and isolation, causing a rise in rates of depression, especially among children.

Jennings has observed that when kids begin to experience depression at an early age, it tends to carry over into adulthood. The frequency with which we experience the emotions of depression and the negative thinking that comes with those emotions causes the symptoms to become habitual.

While we all experience loss and most of us have experienced mild depression as a natural reaction to that loss, children who have experienced multiple “adverse childhood experiences” (ACES) are the most susceptible to chronic and pervasive depression.

Children and youth, once they have been a victim of repeated physical or verbal abuse, begin to blame themselves, and the stage is set for long-term depression and anxiety, and the erosion of self-worth. 

Additionally, Humboldt County has a shortage of mental health providers, creating yet greater obstacles to care addressing depression, whether caused by loss, neglect, and abuse, or various forms of isolation. Long waiting lists are common, insurance requirements can be discouraging, and costs may be prohibitive. Stigma is still an issue for some. One of the positive things to come out of the pandemic is the availability of online “telehealth” therapy that works for some patients. Finding the right fit with an online therapist is key, and Jennings asserts that “therapists have gotten very good at telehealth”.

How CBT helps rebuild healthy thinking

In CBT, people learn to reframe their sense of loss into one of opportunity.

In her local and highly individualized practice, Jennings has found that CBT is the “most efficacious therapy for anxiety and depression” and likes it because it is more structured than some types of talk therapy and sets defined and reachable goals for making progress. Based on the premise that changing the way we think changes the way we feel, and therefore changes our behavior, creates tangible and realistic markers of progress that replace negative thinking with new habits. 

By creating awareness of our negative thought patterns, we gradually learn to replace them. Instead of “I should have done my homework,” a statement that conveys shame, the new expression would be “I could have done my homework”, which reflects less negatively on the undone homework. “Watch out for ‘shoulds’ because they are not often true,” says Jennings.

“It’s not about what’s wrong with you, it’s about what happened to you,” says Jennings. “We need to normalize depression. Loss will happen to all of us.” Many of the people she works with are surprised to find out how many others experience the same feelings in response to life events.

In CBT, people learn to reframe their sense of loss into one of opportunity, totally changing their outlook. The rational brain is used to find a different way to think. Negative thoughts are replaced with smart thoughts. Self-blame and assuming one is somehow responsible for the loss are shown to be untrue, and a foundation of healthier thinking is built.

The healing power of horses

But it isn’t easy. There’s homework, and the task of breaking old thought patterns that, while destructive, are comfortable and known, is difficult. That’s where the horses come in. “Horses make people come back,” says Jennings. “Therapy is hard, and the horses help because they interact with people.”

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is not new. Horses and people have been interacting for millennia, and the deep relationship between horses and people is as celebrated as that we experience with our canine friends. Horses can read our emotions and even provide a kind of empathy we crave but may struggle to seek in other humans. 

In the structured environment Jennings provides on the Blue Lake homestead, where she has created short riding trails to address various mental health issues, both riding and non-mounted therapy is carried out. “I have a pony who will walk right up to the most anxious person,” says Jennings. The presence of the horses tends to make people open up; the motion of riding itself can be therapeutic.

The successful formula of CBT and EAP, as well as the lack of treatment options for kids in Humboldt County has led Jennings to create a curriculum that will be delivered free of charge in local schools. To be administered by a new non-profit called Equine Empowered Education that Jennings has founded, the program will reach kids who might not otherwise have a pathway to the kind of therapy her work has successfully delivered to countless clients over many years of practice.

The hope is that catching issues early in life and empowering kids with the tools to rewire their thinking and behavior will lead them to blossom into adults who are better equipped to deal with the inevitable hardships life sends our way.

Ann Constantino, submitted on behalf of the SoHum Health’s Outreach department.