All About Mental Health

Source: Best Mental Health Degrees

Mental health issues are more prevalent in Americans than almost any other type of health problems, but often go untreated because people are conditioned to believe that there may be something wrong with themselves if they suffer from emotional difficulties. Even though anti-depressant use increased about 400 percent between the years of 1998 and 2008, many people still elect to ignore symptoms of depression and anxiety or try to mask them with alcohol or other recreational drug use.

Women in their 40s and 50s take more antidepressants than any other group. Children are also prone to have mental health disorders; it's estimated that 20 percent of the children on the planet suffer from some type of mental health problem. Major depressive disorder is the major cause of disability in people between the ages of 15 and 44.

About half of all mental health disorders begin before the age of 14, so monitoring children for signs of them can be especially beneficial.