Mental Illness: More Prevalent Than You Might Think

May is Mental Health Month, so it's an appropriate time to get some perspective on how mental illness effects the population. World of Psychology blogger John Grohol compiled some striking statistics from the work of Kessler, et al. about just how prevalent mental illnesses actually are. Over the course of a lifetime, more than half of Americans will experience some form of mental illness. In any given year, 75 million Americans, nearly 1 in 3, will suffer from an emotional or mental disorder.

Here's a breakdown by various categories:

	Women	Men	Both
Any Anxiety Disorder	23.4%	14.3%	19.1%
Any Mood Disorder	11.6%	7.7%	9.7%
Any Impulse-Control Disorder	9.3%	11.7%	10.5%
Any Substance Disorder	11.6%	15.4%	13.4%
Any Disorder	34.7%	29.9%	32.4%

Take home point: if you think that mental illness won't affect you, think again. Chances are that someone you know suffers or will suffer from it during his or her lifetime.