You are affected by depression, whether you realize it or not. You may be fortunate enough to not suffer from it, either, but the likelihood that you know someone who is suffering from depression is quite high. Not only are these numbers concerning, but the numbers of people who take their own lives due to depression is at a very high level. If you do suffer from depression, or know someone who does, mental health treatment is the place to start in order to address its effects.
How Depression Affects the Economy
$210.5 billion is lost every year because of serious mental illnesses – a fact that should make employers stand up and listen, and take depression more seriously. The leading cause of disability in people ages 15-44 in the United States is depression. Depression is in the top three workplace concerns in the United States. The other two are stress and family crisis.
Treatment of Depression
Depression is best approached with professional treatment. In fact, when treated, 80% of depression sufferers end up showing an improvement in their symptoms with in four to six weeks of their treatment beginning. 41% of adults with a mental health condition in the United States received treatment in 2015, and 51% of children between 8 and 15 also received treatment for their mental health conditions.
Unfortunately, two thirds of depression sufferers either receive subpar treatment, or do not seek out treatment at all.
Depression Research
It is estimated that 20% of Americans will be impacted by mental illness in some way during their lifetimes. It is an often invisible problem (not as obvious as other conditions, such as migraine) if you know someone who is facing it, which is why listening is a great method to help.
The funding for research on mental health and other deadly diseases is often outpaced by important, but less deadly diseases like breast cancer. This is important to understand, as just as many people each year are lost to suicide as are lost to breast cancer.
As far as research funding is concerned, each year depression receives 1/10th the funding of motor neuron disease, and 1/100th of the funding breast cancer research receives.
Facts About Suicide
The second leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 44 is suicide – one person dies from suicide every twelve minutes in the US (in 2014, this totaled 42,773). 250,000 additional people in the United States attempt suicide and, thankfully, do not succeed. Depression is an epidemic.
If you or someone you know is suffering from suicidal thoughts, you can reach the suicide hotline.
Veterans are Greatly Affected
Every day, it is estimated that 22 veterans die due to suicide. Veterans between the ages of 55 and 59 have the highest suicide rates. Of the veterans who return from their tours of duty, only half of those veterans who require mental health treatment actually end up receiving it.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a condition that anyone can end up having, but the rate among veterans is fifteen times higher than that of civilians.