© Bryan Christie Design
The rate, slightly higher than last year's 19.5 percent figure, reflected increasing depression, especially among the unemployed, SAMHSA, part of the National Institutes of Health, said.
"Too many Americans are not getting the help they need and opportunities to prevent and intervene early are being missed," Pamela Hyde, SAMHSA's administrator, said in a statement.
"The consequences for individuals, families and communities can be devastating. If left untreated mental illnesses can result in disability, substance abuse, suicides, lost productivity, and family discord."
The 2009 mental health survey hints at the impact of record unemployment rates, which last year hit a 25-year high as struggling employers slashed jobs to cope with a weak economy.
For many, lost employment meant loss of health insurance, leaving many of the nation's mentally ill unable to get treatment. According to the survey, 6.1 million adults last year had a mental health need that went untreated, and 42.5 percent said it was because they could not afford it.
It found 14.8 million Americans had major depression last year, and 10 percent of the jobless did, compared with 7.5 of retired people or those not in the job force, 7.3 percent who worked part time and 5.4 percent who worked full time. Only 64 percent of adults aged 18 or older with major depression were treated last year, compared with 71 percent a year ago.
Being jobless also increased the risk of suicide. Adults who were unemployed last year were twice as likely to have serious thoughts of suicide as people who were fully employed, with 6.6 percent of the unemployed considering suicide, compared with 3.1 percent of those who were working.
The survey also found that 23.8 percent of women had some form of mental illness, compared with 15.6 percent of men.
Source: Reuters
the answer to stress and depression is invariably the following steps. first, get regular supplements as I have found, vitamin d3, omega 3, garlic oil, healthy vegetables, exclude meat from your diet ideally, . next, exercise , a walk in the country, local park each and every day. my morning walk works wonders for me spiritually. next, employ your mind, even if it is only in constructive day dreaming. next, throw the square box in the living room, out of the window. next, stop relying on mainstream media, use altermative sources, such as this site, intell-hub, alex jones, david icke etc. but be careful what you believe!!!!!!. we need to crack open the silly paradigms we have been inculcated with since we were born. next stop practisng religion. I mean this. learn that all the answers to your life all so xalled redemption lies and is soley in you alone. though others may be of inestimabe help, you are not a baby, and do not need others to spoon feed you!! once we learn this we will have the strength to rise above everything life tries to throw at us. it all takes time. and if you are on pills of any kind, unless there is strong reason place them in the bin and not in your mouth. you must decide. stop taking vaccinations unless you have dengue fever , marburgs or yellow fever, or smallpox. you can take all the medications they throw at you but in the end they will make you sick the probability is most people are ill simply because at some level of their being they have made this decision to be ill. you do not need sympathy, learn to have a sense of humour. I have arthritis and it can be very bad at times, quite painful. I talk about it but with a sense of humour, and did a five mile walk yesterday, even though could only crawl out of bed that morning. Often it is we who decide our own limitations. stop limiting yourself.
it all comes down to attitude. psychiatrists are more often as ignorant about so called mental illnes as we are. How many schizophrenics ar really very psychic? I wonder. also stop taking fluoride in any form and do not take anything with aspartame in it. do you want to be poisoned??
I firmly believe by implementing these steps most illness can be alleviated or simply cleared up. at a deep level we may be choosing our own illness!!!!
the final most important step is, love and compassion for others. and stop being selfish. look outward and not inward. looking inward all you see are the dark shadows, looking outward all you see is the light, invariably, though it contains its own shadows. if you have done some great wrongs in the past that weigh on your mind, realise them fully, then set out to make amends, and live life in the opposite way to how you once did. this is recompense in its fullest sense. we all fall victim of darkness, i have many times, through deep personal pain, that would not go away. one can carry ones pain each day yet still live in the manner I have suggested. it all depends on how we chose to orient our minds. nothing more than that.