- Mental health is a real global issue, and deserves to be taken seriously...
We often talk about mental illness as if it’s a rare, spontaneously occurring event. But the reality is, mental illness is somewhat common. Approximately one in four adults suffers from a diagnosable mental health disorder, and most of the rest of us at least virtually everyone occasionally suffer from symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other common afflictions.
Mental Health Disorder Statistics
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, “approximately 9.5 percent of American adults ages 18 and over, will suffer from a depressive illness (major depression, bipolar disorder, or dysthymia) each year.” Women are roughly twice as likely to suffer a major depressive episode than men, with the average age of onset for both men and women being in the mid-20s.
Additionally, around 18 percent of people between 18 and 54 have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders come in many forms, such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and phobias.
Other mental health disorders are much less common. For example, only 1 percent of Americans experience schizophrenia.
Getting Help
Thankfully, whether you suffer from anxiety, depression, some combination of the two, or something else altogether, there are ways to get help.
- Find a therapist. Finding a therapist who specializes in your affliction can be hugely beneficial. In therapy sessions, you’ll get a chance to talk about your subjective experiences, and you’ll work together with your therapist to come up with strategies for how to manage your symptoms more effectively. Over time, you’ll see gradual improvements in your disposition.
- Look for community support options. If therapy isn’t an option for you, some form of community support may be available. You may be able to seek free or low-cost therapeutic options, or you can attend regular support groups.
- Talk to friends and family members. If you have close friends or family members, lean on them. Sometimes, just talking openly about how you feel can make you feel better.
- Practice self-care. Self-care alone can’t cure you of schizophrenia or rebalance the chemical transmitters in your brain, but it can make a remarkable difference in your daily symptoms – and sometimes help you recover from a temporarily distressing episode. Take time off work, hire a babysitter, and do some of the things you genuinely love. It’s also helpful to make sure you’re eating full, healthy meals and exercising on a regular basis.
Why So Common?
There are more treatments for mental illnesses like depression than ever before, but mental health disorder rates are actively rising. Why is this the case? And why are mental illnesses so comparatively common?
There are several potential explanations:
- We’re all imperfect. One possibility is that because humans are all imperfect, our sense of normal is distorted. The reality is, we all experience negative emotions from time to time – and few of us have the sense that we’ve always been in perfect mental health. With this context in mind, it’s possible we have a simple semantic problem; terms like mental health “disorder” or “illness” imply that these experiences are completely out of the norm, when in reality, it’s closer to the default human experience than the baseline we generally consider to be “normal.”
- The struggles of daily life are common. It’s also important to acknowledge that almost everyone has to deal with the common struggles of daily life. Most of us have to deal with stressful jobs, distracting personal issues, difficult relationships, and even routine inconveniences like traffic. During especially difficult periods of your life, all these stressors can add up to get the better of you – and that’s not an abnormal event.
- Diagnostic criteria can be broad. Another explanation is that the diagnostic criteria for mental illnesses is relatively broad. If you experience significant, unexplained feelings of sadness for several days in a row, it may be possible to diagnose you with depression. If your anxiety influences your decision making several times per week, or if it generally makes you uncomfortable, it may be possible to diagnose you with an anxiety disorder. Because there are so many identifiable mental illnesses, and there are so many diagnostic criteria for each one, it’s not surprising there are more people with active diagnoses.
- Our population is aging. Most developed countries are experiencing the phenomenon of an aging population. The average age is getting higher, people are living longer, and low birth rates are skewing demographics. Because older people are more likely to experience depression and other forms of mental illness, it’s only natural that an older population is forced to deal with more mental health issues.
- Social and cultural factors. There are also many social and cultural factors that could explain the increase in mental health disorders, such as excessive reliance on social media, fewer opportunities for in-personal social interaction, and higher social pressure to succeed. However, because mental health disorder statistics are increasing in many different countries around the world, across many different cultures, it’s almost impossible to definitively conclude whether any single social or cultural factor is to blame.
Mental health issues are much more common than people realize. Even if you don’t suffer from a life-altering illness like schizophrenia, episodes of depression, general anxiety disorder, and other “minor” mental health afflictions can still be devastating. If you or someone you know exhibits signs and symptoms of a mental health illness, it’s important to seek treatment as soon as possible.