Several years ago there was a large study conducted by the National Institute for Mental Health, that suggested that 55% of Americans will suffer from a mental disorder during their lifetime. Earlier studies like this were conducted in l984 and l994, but were not as comprehensive as this study, nor were their findings as startling. The study was based on interviews with over 9,000 people over the age of 18.
What’s interesting are the specifics. You can probably guess that depression was the most common problem. They found that 17% of us will experience a major depression sometime in our life, while 3% will experience what’s called Dysthymia, a less intense, but a longer lasting form of depression. The mood disorders like depression typically first strike a person in early adulthood–in their 20’s or early 30’s.
Substance abuse disorders accounted for the second largest problem, with over 13% experiencing alcohol abuse, and over 10% experiencing sometime in their life either a problem with drug abuse or dependency on a prescription drug.
Taken as a group, the largest percent of disorders was the anxiety disorders. 29% of us will struggle with some form of anxiety, with 12.5% struggling with specific phobias, and 12.1% struggling with social phobia. We hear a lot about depression, but we don’t see TV commercials focusing much on anxiety. Perhaps they are missing a major marketing opportunity. But in truth, they don’t have the range of products to be prescribed for anxiety disorders as they do for the depression disorders.
Remember, these statistics are describing something that will happen over our lifetime. It doesn’t mean that 17% of our population are depressed at any given point in time. But it is still surprising. And probably the main reason it is surprising is that we don’t like to talk about mental disorders. The lead researcher said that if they predicted that 99% of Americans will have a specific physical illness, we would accept that. But mental disorders are still misunderstood and therefore not really talked about until it hits close to home. Then it comes as an embarrassment or something to be hidden. Maybe it’s time we begin a conversation with our family members and friends about the reality of mental disorders, as well as how prevalent they are in our culture.
Question: What’s your attitude towards someone struggling with a mental disorder.