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Your Mental Health
Each year, an estimated 56 million Americans - one in five people - experience diagnosable mental disorders. Affecting people of every race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status and gender, severe mental illness or serious emotional disturbance can impair normal daily activities, from work and school to sleeping and caring for oneself and others. The economic burden of mental illness in the United States - including both health care costs and lost productivity - is more than $170 billion a year. Yet, only one in four affected adults and one in five children and adolescents in need of mental health services get care.
(Source: Health and Human Services)
Do you know how to determine if your lack of motivation is caused by Depression?
What if your fear of public speaking is a result of Social Anxiety Disorder?
Tired at work? What if the constant worries keeping you awake at night are caused by General Anxiety Disorder?
Mental Disorders: Fact Sheet
Anxiety Disorders include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias (social phobia, agoraphobia, and specific phobia).
Approximately 19.1 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 13.3 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorders frequently co-occur with depressive disorders, eating disorders, or substance abuse.
Many people have more than one anxiety disorder.
Women are more likely than men to have an anxiety disorder. Approximately twice as many women as men suffer from panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, and specific phobia, though about equal numbers of women and men have obsessive-compulsive disorder and social phobia.
Panic Disorder: Approximately 2.4 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 1.7 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have panic disorder.
Panic disorder typically develops in late adolescence or early adulthood.
About 1 in 3 people with panic disorder develop agoraphobia, a condition in which they become afraid of being in any place or situation where escape might be difficult or help unavailable in the event of a panic attack.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Approximately 3.3 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 2.3 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have OCD.
The first symptoms of OCD often begin during childhood or adolescence.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Approximately 5.2 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 3.6 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have PTSD. PTSD can develop at any age, including childhood.
About 30 percent of Vietnam veterans experienced PTSD at some point after the war. The disorder also frequently occurs after violent personal assaults such as rape, mugging, or domestic violence; terrorism; natural or human-caused disasters; and accidents.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Approximately 4.0 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 2.8 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have GAD.
GAD can begin across the life cycle, though the risk is highest between childhood and middle age.
Social Phobia : Approximately 5.3 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 3.7 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have social phobia.
Social phobia typically begins in childhood or adolescence.
Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia involves intense fear and avoidance of any place or situation where escape might be difficult or help unavailable in the event of developing sudden panic-like symptoms. Approximately 3.2 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 2.2 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have agoraphobia.
Specific phobia involves marked and persistent fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation. Approximately 6.3 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 4.4 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have some type of specific phobia.
Depressive disorders: Approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year, have a depressive disorder.
Nearly twice as many women (12.0 percent) as men (6.6 percent) are affected by a depressive disorder each year. These figures translate to 12.4 million women and 6.4 million men in the U.S.
Depressive disorders may be appearing earlier in life in people born in recent decades compared to the past.
Depressive disorders often co-occur with anxiety disorders and substance abuse.
Major Depressive Disorder is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and established market economies worldwide.
Major depressive disorder affects approximately 9.9 million American adults, or about 5.0 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year.
Nearly twice as many women (6.5 percent) as men (3.3 percent) suffer from major depressive disorder each year. These figures translate to 6.7 million women and 3.2 million men.
While major depressive disorder can develop at any age, the average age at onset is the mid-20s.
Bipolar Disorder: Bipolar disorder affects approximately 2.3 million American adults, or about 1.2 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year.
Men and women are equally likely to develop bipolar disorder.
The average age at onset for a first manic episode is the early 20s.
Suicide: In 1997, 30,535 people died from suicide in the U.S.
More than 90 percent of people who kill themselves have a diagnosable mental disorder, commonly a depressive disorder or a substance abuse disorder.
The highest suicide rates in the U.S. are found in white men over age 85.
The suicide rate in young people increased dramatically over the last few decades. In 1997, suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds.
Four times as many men than women commit suicide; however, women attempt suicide 2-3 times as often as men.
Schizophrenia: Approximately 2.2 million American adults, or about 1.1 percent of the population age 18 and older in a given year, have schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency.
Schizophrenia often first appears earlier in men, usually in their late teens or early 20s, than in women, who are generally affected in their 20s or early 30s.
Eating Disorders: The 3 main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. Females are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. Only an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia and an estimated percent of those with binge-eating disorder are male.
In their lifetime, an estimated 0.5 percent to 3.7 percent of females suffer from anorexia and an estimated 1.1 percent to 4.2 percent suffer from bulimia.
Community surveys have estimated that between 2 percent and 5 percent of Americans experience binge-eating disorder in a 6-month period.
The mortality rate among people with anorexia has been estimated at 0.56 percent per year, or approximately 5.6 percent per decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) ADHD, one of the most common mental disorders in children and adolescents, affects an estimated 4.1 percent of youths ages 9 to 17 in a 6-month period.
About 2-3 times more boys than girls are affected.
ADHD usually becomes evident in preschool or early elementary years. The disorder frequently persists into adolescence and occasionally into adulthood.
Autism affects an estimated 1 to 2 per 1,000 people.
Autism and related disorders (also called autism spectrum disorders or pervasive developmental disorders) develop in childhood and generally are apparent by age 3.
Autism is about 4 times more common in boys than girls. Girls with the disorder, however, tend to have more severe symptoms and greater cognitive impairment.
Alzheimer's Disease, the most common cause of dementia among people age 65 and older, affects an estimated 4 million Americans.
As more and more Americans live longer, the number affected by Alzheimer's disease will continue to grow unless a cure or effective prevention is discovered.
The duration of illness, from onset of symptoms to death, averages 8 to 10 years.
