In spite of the fact that we are a more affluent society, there has been a 70pc rise in teenage depression since the mid-80s, with six million prescriptions for anti-depressants being written for children each year. In addition, the suicide rate among young people is three times higher than it was 20 years ago, with children as young as five being treated for self-harming. In the 30 years that I have been receiving letters from young people I've noticed a change. Where once it was 17-year-olds who felt weighed down by misery, it is now 12-year-olds. And it's no use blaming television or teen magazines. They are only reflecting the face of society. If youth television and teen mags concentrated on kittens playing with balls of wool young people wouldn't buy them. They are only interested in sex, glamour, the misdeeds of their icons and their own appearance, and we need to ask why. Materially most of them are better off so it's not a simple matter of want. And those who care to take up the options on offer have much greater chances of satisfaction and excitement than their parents or grandparents. School trips show them places earlier generations could only dream about. Many of them have regular foreign holidays and designer gear. The fact remains that a fair proportion of our young people are crying out for release from the pressure of simply being young in today's society. This week a Channel 5 documentary revealed what hell holes some schools can be. No peace there for the youngster from a disruptive home. This week too the Royal College of Nursing drew attention to the problems school nurses were encountering from playground sexual crazes like "daisy-chaining" - young people having sex in large groups - prostitution, drug use and self-harm. The chair of the School Nurse Forum said: "Glory be that the majority of the population doesn't know what is going on." Well, we know now. We also know, because the Health Department has told us, that one in five of all abortions in the UK involves a teenager - more than 35,000 a year. And more than a thousand of those were on girls under 15. Remember too, that behind every teenage pregnancy there is a boy who will not escape unscathed, whether the pregnancy ends in a termination or produces a child which will need 20 years of support. I don't believe for a second that all the boys concerned are unfeeling or exploitative, and I know that many of them are unhappy and suffering from conditions like bulimia and self-harming, ailments that were once thought to be a female province. The RCN's sexual health adviser says the currency of manhood is now to be sexually active. "Once taking an apprenticeship would be the making of manhood. Today so few get this chance that sex has taken its place." Elsewhere in this column I've highlighted the drug problem, and nearly 2,000 children under 14 are hospitalised each year because of drunkenness, a rise of 13pc in England in the last six years. The number of young women in hospital with mental health problems triggered by alcohol has risen by 9pc in seven years. The rate among under 14's rose by 24pc. I know that the picture is not all gloom. As I move round the country I see groups of young people working for charity, making music, playing sport, pursuing their studies and building bright futures for themselves. But too many of our children are getting left behind. I don't doubt that everyone's intentions towards the young are of the very best, but if we ignore these alarming statistics and the warnings of professionals working in the field, we are condemning future generations to misery. ********** Decent man was true star All this week I've felt saddened, as though I'd lost a friend, and in a way I have. John Mills, who died last week, has been part of the fabric of my life for as long as I can remember. Although he was an accomplished song and dance man and left a budding career as a classical actor to enlist when war broke out, his forte was playing decent men, in or out of uniform. He did it well because he WAS decent, a man who loved his family, treated everyone the same whatever their status and believed in Britain. I saw him once in King's Cross - tiny, immaculate, hefting cases with one hand and tenderly shepherding his wife, Mary, with the other. His whole demeanour was modest, but there was no mistaking a star. He will be missed. ********** I haven't got the time to be ill Experts have invented a new illness. It's called Hurried Woman Syndrome and is caused by juggling the demands of a family and work. It causes tiredness, increased appetite, weight gain, trouble sleeping, irritable bowel syndrome, lack of motivation, feelings of guilt and low self-esteem. They say it affects women who try to do too much in too short a space of time. I've got it and I've got every one of the symptoms too. I should have a free day next April, and I'm going to do something about it then. ********* Jeremy Paxman hits hard, interrupts belligerently, won't be diverted and his sceptical eyebrows are good telly in themselves. But would you like to share a home with him, or a bus trip or even a lifeboat? In my case, only if the alternative was sharing a dinghy with the ultra-pompous Jonathan Dimbleby. It seems to me that commentators in this election are setting the agenda more than they should. They decide what is going to be the slant of an interview and won't allow their victims an escape or the chance to discuss wider issues. It's the politicians we need to hear, not their inquisitors. ********* Did you see that picture of the Queen at the unveiling of the long-overdue memorial to a policeman killed on duty? Her Majesty stoically braved the falling rain while beside her Michael Winner held his umbrella squarely over his own head. Sir Walter Raleigh must be turning in his grave! ********** Would a cut-price rate really hurt? Donating to charity by texting is a modern innovation, and growing more popular by the day. But I wonder if enthusiastic texters know that up to a quarter of the money they give to a good cause goes straight into the pocket of the mobile phone operator? The Institute of Fundraising is to approach the major operators after discovering that only two-thirds of a texted donation reaches the charity concerned. A £3 donation during the London Marathon resulted in £1.20 going to the companies and the aggregator who handled the transaction, leaving £1.80 for the charities. A spokesman for one of the big mobile operators tried to equate the mobile rake-off with the price of a stamp - 26p - on money you send by post. That same company recorded profits in excess of £200m. Would it really hurt to offer kind-hearted people a cut-price rate for a good cause? ********** Hoping photo will fight drug problem Last week Sian Sadler died after taking one dose of Ecstasy. She was 18 and on her first night out clubbing. Last week the parents of 21-year-old John Courtney released a picture of their son, dead on the floor of a heroin overdose. They did it in an attempt to show the truth about drugs. When someone you love dies you have an unbearable urge to protect them, to honour not only their memory but their body. By releasing that photograph the Courtneys rose above their natural inclination to shield their son, and I honour them for it. I hope the photograph makes those in the early stages of drug-addiction think again. I hope too that it pricks the conscience of those who peddle drugs or maintain they are harmless - but I won't be holding my breath on that one. * Denise Robertson cannot enter into any personal correspondence. | 
