John Hopkins released some new statistics recently, indicating there has been an increase of about 2 million adults who suffer from mental illness since 1997. These statistics were based on self-reports in 2007, and the specific cause is not indicated. The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health.
When you read about statistics like this, do you question them? I don’t doubt at all there is an increase in self-reporting of mental illness, but I question if there is an actual increase versus more awareness. While the report did not indicate a reason for the increase, the implication was that there are more people disabled from mental illness now versus 10 years ago.
So why write about something I question? For me, I worry when data comes out like this without explanations. With all of the advertisements for psychotropic medications on TV and in magazines surely people are more aware of what the symptoms of the more common mental illness are. And with more and more access to the internet and 24/7 television, people are more aware of how so-called normal, average people can have a mental illness, so some stigma may be less allowing people to admit they have a problem where as maybe before they were not. These two things alone could account for an increase in self-reporting.
Of course, there could be an actual increase as well. During good economic times, money and decadence can lead to a variety of mental health issues. Bad economic times have obvious mental health implications. War time impacts mental health as well, both with our soldiers and those who wait for them to return. Since we have experienced all of these things during the time frame they researched there are many potential reasons for the overall increase in numbers.
The problem is, with so many possibilities it is difficult to know how to “fix” the problem, or if there is a problem to be fixed. Do we need more access to mental health services? Better education? More Veteran services or services for their families? The possibilities are endless, and without understanding the cause you cannot know how to target it. Certainly none of the fixes I noted would be bad, but with limited resources and time, don’t we want to focus what we have on what will do the most good?
If interested in the variety of stats that are kept, check out the National Institute of Mental Health.