Another Silent Pandemic is Rising in the United States.
Anxiety and Depression are on the rise in the United States. The U.S. is ill-prepared, with some clinics already on the brink of collapse.
Depression and Anxiety are serious medical conditions that are associated with symptoms such as melancholy, loss of pleasure, loss of energy, difficulty in concentrating, and suicidal thoughts. Depression and Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S, affecting 47 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year. It’s not normal for this many Americans to feel depressed.
Depression is both a brain disorder and a state of mind. The brain is unique — it is the only organ whose function we consciously experience because the brain is the organ of the mind.
Illnesses of the mind-brain affect tens of millions of people in the United States. Depression is by far the most prevalent, representing 99% of all mind-brain illnesses.
Did you know that Depression in the United States…
· Affects over 18 million adults (one in ten) in any given year.
· Is the leading cause of disability for ages 15–44.
· Is the primary reason why someone dies of suicide about every 12 minutes, over 41,000 people a year.
· In comparison: homicide claims less than 16,000 lives each year, according to 2019 CDC statistics.
Depression in the Workplace…
· Causes 490 million disability days from work each year in the U.S.
· Accounts for $23 billion in lost workdays each year.
· Takes an economic toll over $100 billion each year from U.S. business.
Depression Internationally…
· Affects over 300 million people worldwide, regardless of culture, age, gender, religion, race or economic status.
· Is one of the most debilitating conditions in the world, with severe depression rated in the same disability category as terminal stage cancer.
· Is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.
Bipolar Disorder…
· Affects 2.6% of the U.S. adult population or 6.3 million people.
· It often starts in a person’s late teen or early adult years. But children and older adults can have bipolar disorder too. The illness usually lasts a lifetime.
Postpartum Depression…
· Is reported to occur in 15% of women shortly before or any time after childbirth, but commonly begins between a week and a month after delivery.*
· Has a higher risk of developing in women with a previous experience with depression, current depression, anxiety and low partner support.*
· Affects not just the mother’s health, but can also interfere with her ability to care for her family, leading to impaired child development.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)…
· Affects about 8 million adults in a given year.
· Frequently occurs after violent personal assaults such as rape, mugging or domestic violence; terrorism; natural or human-caused disasters; and accidents.
· Affects 11–20 out of every 100 Veterans who served in Iraq.
· Affects 12 out of every 100 Veterans who served in the Gulf War.
· Affects 15 out of every 100 Vietnam War Veterans according to the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans have PTSD in their lifetime.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder…
· Affects 2–4% of the adult U.S population or 5–9 million people.
· Has a median age of onset of 31 years.
Suicide…
· Was the tenth leading cause of death for all ages in 2016.
· Results in the death of four times as many men as women, and represent 77.9% of all suicides.*
· Is the second leading cause of death among persons aged 15 -34 years, and the third leading cause of death among persons aged 10–14.
· Every day, approximately 110 Americans take their own life, and roughly 3,500 attempts to do so.
People with Depression and Anxiety disorder are three to five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than those who do not suffer from Depression and Anxiety disorders. Depression and Anxiety disorders develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.
The State Of Mental Health In America
- Youth mental health is worsening. 9.7% of youth in the U.S. have severe major depression, compared to 9.2% in last year’s dataset. This rate was highest among youth who identify as more than one race, at 12.4%.
- Even before COVID-19, the prevalence of mental illness among adults was increasing. In 2019–2020, 19% of adults experienced a mental illness, an increase of 1.5 million people over last year’s dataset.
- Suicidal ideation among adults is increasing. The percentage of adults in the U.S. who are experiencing serious thoughts of suicide increased 0.15% from 2017–2018 to 2019–2020 — an additional 460,000 people from last year’s dataset.
- There is still an unmet need for mental health treatment among youth and adults. 60% of youth with major depression did not receive any mental health treatment in 2017–2018. Even in states with the greatest access, over 38% are not receiving the mental health services they need. Among youth with severe depression, only 27.3% received consistent treatment. 23.6% of adults with a mental illness reported an unmet need for treatment in 2018–2019. This number has not declined since 2011.- The percentage of adults with a mental illness who are uninsured increased for the first time since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Nationally, 10.8% are uninsured, totaling 5.1 million adults. This figure differs dramatically across states — in New Jersey (ranked #1) 2.5% of adults with AMI are uninsured, compared to 23% in Wyoming (ranked #51).
- The number of people looking for help with anxiety and depression has skyrocketed. From January to September 2020, 315,220 people took the anxiety screen, a 93 percent increase over the 2019 total number of anxiety screens. 534,784 people took the depression screen, a 62 percent increase over the 2019 total number of depression screens.
- The number of people screening with moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety has continued to increase throughout 2020 and remains higher than rates prior to COVID-19. In September 2020, the rate of moderate to severe anxiety peaked, with over 8 in 10 people who took an anxiety screen scoring with moderate to severe symptoms. Over 8 in 10 people who took a depression screen have scored with symptoms of moderate to severe depression consistently since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
- More people are reporting frequent thoughts of suicide and self-harm than have ever been recorded in the MHA Screening program since its launch in 2014. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread rapidly in March 2020, over 178,000 people have reported frequent suicidal ideation. 37 percent of people reported having thoughts of suicide more than half or nearly every day in September 2020.
- Young people are struggling most with their mental health. The proportion of youth ages 11–17 who accessed screening was 9 percent higher than the average in 2019. Not only are the number of youth searching for help with their mental health increasing, but throughout the COVID-19 pandemic youth ages 11–17 have been more likely than any other age group to score for moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- Rates of suicidal ideation are highest among youth, especially LGBTQ+ youth. In September 2020, over half of 11–17-year-olds reported having thoughts of suicide or self-harm more than half or nearly every day of the previous two weeks. From January to September 2020, 77,470 youth reported experiencing frequent suicidal ideation, including 27,980 LGBTQ+ youth.
- People screening at risk for mental health conditions are struggling most with loneliness or isolation. From April to September 2020, among people who screened with moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety or depression, 70 percent reported that one of the top three things contributing to their mental health concerns was loneliness or isolation.
- People who identify as Asian or Pacific Islander are searching for mental health resources more in 2020 than ever before. The proportion of screeners identifying as Asian or Pacific Islander increased 7 percent, from 9 percent of screeners in 2019 to 16 percent in 2020.
- While rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation are increasing for people of all races and ethnicities, there are notable differences in those changes over time. Black or African American screeners have had the highest average percent change over time for anxiety and depression, while Native American or American Indian screeners have had the highest average percent change over time for suicidal ideation.
The Coronavirus Pandemic is pushing America into a Mental Health Crisis.
COVID-19 has tripled the rate of depression in US adults in all demographic groups, especially in those with financial worries and the rise is much higher than after previous major traumatic events. Coronavirus Pandemic, the United States is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation and fear generating widespread psychological trauma.
The results showed that 27.8% of adults reported depression symptoms, in contrast with 8.5% before the pandemic. Increases were higher across the spectrum of depression severity, from mild (24.6% vs 16.2% before the pandemic) to severe (5.1% vs 0.7%).
Women were more likely to have depression symptoms before and during the pandemic than men (10.1% of women and 6.9% of men before the pandemic, vs 22.2% of women and 21.9% of men during the pandemic).
