In support of Mental Health Awareness Week — meant to increase awareness of mental health issues and helping people better understand mental disorders — we’ve created the graph below to give you a better idea of the prevalence (in the past year) of these disorders in the general American population. The media sometimes emphasizes one disorder over another, distorting the picture of how many people actually have the disorder. For instance, the graph shows that bipolar disorder — the subject of so many advertising campaigns, TV commercials and more — has similar prevalence rates to panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and binge eating.

Mental disorders are more common than many people realize, and far fewer people seek out treatment for them than you’d expect. Perhaps we should look at different and unique ways to better bring mental health treatment to people, whether it be psychotherapy, medications, or a combination thereof. Even single session psychotherapy can be beneficial to people.

Throughout the country and in communities across America, thousands of people are walking and meeting at events this week to show their support of greater awareness and education about mental health concerns. We join them in their support of these efforts.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 5 Oct 2009
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.