Depression, mental illness, mood changes… NAMI is always BY YOUR SIDE as Sade sings…
Depression does not discriminate among people. It affects all whether they are rich or poor, famous or infamous. One of the celebrities who admits to suffering from Depression is Amy Tan.
Writer Amy Tan, 59 is the well-known author of The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club.
At a time when we’re told more than 60% of Americans are overweight… NOW comes word from the CDC (Centers on Disease Control and Prevention) that 50% or “a majority of Americans will also experience mental illness at some point in their lifetime. Perhaps, our efforts in NAMI to de-stigmatize mental illness are working. Or, perhaps, mental health issues are being better monitored.
Either way, the following article which appeared in USA Today on September 6, 2011 and one from the CDC provide important information.
CDC: Half of Americans will suffer from mental health woes
By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay
The new report, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tallied the national burden of mental illness based on country-wide surveys.
There are “unacceptably high levels of mental illness in the United States,” said Ileana Arias, principal deputy director of the CDC. “Essentially, about 25 percent of adult Americans reported having a mental illness in the previous year. In addition to the high level, we were surprised by the cost associated with that — we estimated about $300 billion in 2002.”
The high cost includes care for the illness and lost productivity, Arias said.
It isn’t clear why so many Americans suffer from mental illness, Arias added. “This is an issue that needs to be addressed,” she said, not only because of the illness itself, but because mental disorders are associated with other chronic illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.
And while having a psychiatric illness is tough enough, the stigma surrounding these diagnoses adds to the burden, experts said.
“Mental illness is frequently seen as a moral issue or an issue of weakness,” Arias explained. “It is a condition no different from cancer or other chronic diseases. People need to accept the difficulties they are having and avail themselves of the resources that are available.”
The CDC report was published Sept. 2 as a supplement to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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In the wake of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, the CDC report is essential reading.
NAMI’s website (see link on right side of this website) provides up-to-date information about research and info involving mental health diseases. For more on the above article, please visit http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/748953 and learn more from one federal administrator who says: “People with mental disorders should seek help with the same urgency as any other health condition.”
Pamela Hyde of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), echos what we know and say in NAMI… “Treatment and support services are effective, and people do recover.”
So pass the word… NAMI’s Family2Family Education program is free and available across the United States. AND head to the CDC website for more graphs and info on the prevalence of various kinds of mental health disorders.
FIGURE 1. Prevalence of current depression among adults aged ≥18 years, by state quartile — Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United States, 2006
CDC Report: Mental Illness Surveillance Among U.S. Adults (9/2/2011)
The economic burden of mental illness in the United States is substantial—about $300 billion in 2002. Mental illness is an important public health problem in itself—about 25% of U.S. adults have a mental illness—but also because it is associated with chronic medical diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. Mental illness surveillance by organizations such as CDC is a critically important part of disease prevention and control.
For the first time, CDC has compiled data from eight CDC surveillance systems, none of which were designed to focus specifically on mental illness, to better understand the disease burden and to make recommendations about gaps in mental illness surveillance. These systems are the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS), National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).
The CDC report, Mental Illness Surveillance Among Adults in the United States, describes the extent of mental illness among U.S. adults and recommends increased efforts to monitor mental illness and anxiety disorders.
Released in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the publication is the result of CDC’s first agency-wide compilation of data from selected CDC surveillance and information systems that measure the prevalence and impact of mental illness in the U.S. adult population.
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