This year I have been conducting research concerning the percentage of mentally unhealthy people for an upcoming project.

I am interested in:

  • Statistics about America, other countries, and global
  • Not just mental illnesses (Skitzophrenia, Bipolar disorder, Autism spectrum), but also less several mental unhealth (difficulty holding long-term relationships, not feeling fulfilled, phobias).
  • The precise definition of mental health and mental illness
  • Conducting primary research, if necessary

Here is what I have found, so far:

  1. “An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.” – The National Institute of Mental Health, citing Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of Twelve-month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) by Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, Wai Tat Chiu, AM, Olga Demler, MA, MS, and Ellen E. Walters, M.S.
  2. Regarding the release of the DSM-V, “Almost 50 percent of Americans (46.4 percent to be exact) will have a diagnosable mental illness in their lifetimes, based on the previous edition, the DSM-IV.” – Slate.com, citing Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication by Kessler RC1, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, Walters EE.
  3. “…Of 3,032 adults, aged 25–74: Results showed 17.2 percent of adults were flourishing, while 56.6 percent were moderately mentally healthy… The study findings suggest there is room for adults to improve as less than 20 percent of Americans are living a flourishing life.” – Wikipedia, citing The Mental Health Continuum: From Languishing to Flourishing in Life by Keyes, C. L. in the Journal Of Health & Social Behavior.
  4. “In surveys, about 10 percent of singles perceive themselves to be happy, 40 percent feel unhappy, and 50 percent see themselves in the middle.” – WikiHow, citing Glück, auf der Suche nach dem ‘gutem Leben’ by Bernhard Grom (Autor), Norbert Brieskorn (Autor), Gerd Haeffner. The title of this book roughly translates to Happiness, In Search of the “Good Life.”
  5. “Adults with any type of mental illness in the past year: 45.1 million” – The American Psychological Association, citing Rates of Co-Occurring Mental and Substance Use Disorders by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
  6. “Only 13 percent of people worldwide actually like going to work.” – The Washington Post, citing State of the Global Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for Business Leaders Worldwide by Gallup.
  7. “One of the first things I learned after beginning to practice psychotherapy was that everyone… at one time or another, could do with a little therapy. I’m understating my case.” – Everyone Should Be in Therapy, by Dr. Thomas Moore
  8. “Previous widely cited large-scale surveys in the US were the Epidemiological Catchment Area (ECA) survey and subsequent National Comorbidity Survey (NCS). The NCS was replicated and updated between 2000 and 2003 and indicated that, of those groups of disorders assessed, nearly half of Americans (46.4%) reported meeting criteria at some point in their life for either a DSM-IV anxiety disorder (28.8%), mood disorder (20.8%), impulse-control disorder (24.8%) or substance use disorders (14.6%). Half of all lifetime cases had started by age 14 and 3/4 by age 24.” – Prevalence of mental disorders (Wikipedia), citing Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication by Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, Patricia Berglund, MBA, Olga Demler, MA, MS, Robert Jin, MA, Kathleen R. Merikangas, PhD, and Ellen E. Walters, MS