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.
