It is estimated that about 30 million Americans are in therapy.
I want to be clear that the other almost 300 million are not in therapy, NOT because they have reached perfect emotional stability. Not even close.
Some statistics:
Mental Illness
Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year.
Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S.—9.8 million, or 4.0%—experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.
Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%.
1.1% of adults in the U.S. live with schizophrenia.
2.6% of adults in the U.S. live with bipolar disorder.
6.9% of adults in the U.S.—16 million—had at least one major depressive episode in the past year.6
18.1% of adults in the U.S. experienced an anxiety disorder such as post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and specific phobias.
Among the 20.2 million adults in the U.S. who experienced a substance use disorder,
50.5%—10.2 million adults—had a co-occurring mental illness.
Depression
An estimated 17.3 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 7.1% of all U.S. adults. About 2.6 million American children [more than one in twenty] had diagnosed anxiety and/or depression in 2011-12 [the numbers have risen since].
Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year.
Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment.
40 percent of Americans reported feeling more anxious this year than last.
ADD
4.4 percent of the adult US population has ADHD, but less than 20 percent of these individuals seek help for it.
3 to 5 percent, or about 2 million, of American teens suffer from ADHD.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 11 percent of all children in the U.S. aged 4-17 have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADHD or ADD) — that was roughly 6.1 million American children in 2016, a 43 percent increase since 2003. According to its 2015 report, the CDC says the total number of Americans — adults and children — with ADHD continues to rise — up from 7.8 percent in 2003 to 9.5 percent in 2007 and 11 percent in 2011.
OCD
2.2 million suffer from OCD.
Sleeping disorders
Approximately one in four Americans develop insomnia each year
About 30% of American adults have symptoms of insomnia
Up to 10% of American adults are likely to have chronic insomnia
SEXUAL ABUSE
Every 92 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted.
And every 9 minutes, that victim is a child. [Meanwhile, only 5 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will end up in prison.]
Abuse causes great emotional dysfunction unless properly treated.
BROKEN HOMES
About one third of all children in the US are living with just one parent. That is often the cause of emotional difficulties. "Children raised by single mothers are more likely to fare worse on a number of dimensions, including their school achievement, their social and emotional development, their health and their success in the labor market. They are at greater risk of parental abuse and neglect (especially from live-in boyfriends who are not their biological fathers), more likely to become teen parents and less likely to graduate from high school or college. Not all children raised in single parent families suffer these adverse outcomes; it is simply that the risks are greater for them."
"According to eating disorders statistics estimated by the National Eating Disorder Association, in the USA up to 30 million people suffer from an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder. Worldwide the figure is more like 70 million sufferers!"
Hard to believe but even if we cut the number in half or third - it is still a tremendous number.
OPIOIDS
1. In 2016, health care providers across the US wrote more than 214 million prescriptions for opioid pain medication—a rate of 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people.
2. As many as 1 in 5 people receive prescription opioids long-term for noncancer pain in primary care settings.
3. More than 11 million people abused prescription opioids in 2016.
4. Every day, more than 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids.
5. More than 40% of all US opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved a prescription opioid.
6. Drug overdoses claimed the lives of nearly 64,000 Americans in 2016. Nearly two-thirds of these deaths (66%) involved a prescription or illicit opioid.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol-impaired driving accounts for more than 30 percent of all driving fatalities each year.
More than 15 million people struggle with an alcohol use disorder in the United States, but less than eight percent of those receive treatment.
More than 65 million Americans report binge drinking in the past month, which is more than 40 percent of the total of current alcohol users.
Teen alcohol use kills 4,700 people each year. That’s more than all illegal drugs combined.
Of course the list of dysfunctions goes on and on. And then there are the more mild of emotional instability or dysfunction. For such cases the stats are clear. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. We all have areas of our personalities that need polishing. Whether it is how we conduct our relationships, how we deal with stress, finances, food, sleep, bothersome thoughts that continually haunt us, anger, guilt, fears etc. etc. etc.
Is there anyone out there who is a perfectly developed emotional being? Who has zero baggage? Who is complete love, warmth, optimism, care, compassion etc. etc. Whose marriage is perfect, whose relationship with his [or her] children is ideal, who never has self defeating thoughts or behaviors, who is never selfish?
No.
So what is my point?
I have no idea. I am not addicted to opioids or alcohol [although I drink alcohol religiously - i.e. for kiddush], I NEVER drink and drive [nor do I ever NOT drink and drive. The only driving I have ever really done is "to the hoop"], don't have excessive anxiety or depression [or excessive money for that matter but BARUCH HASHEM for all the bounty He has given me!!!], don't overeat [except sometimes at the leil shabbos seuda but you would never know looking at my 5'10 125 pound frame] and am all in all considered quite normal [at least by myself - others probably think that I am wacky. I suspect that they don't tell me because they don't want to hurt my feelings. Ok - so I guess I am paranoid. When I go to a football game and the players go into the huddle - I think they are talking about me]. But I AM a statistics junkie.... So I shared with you some stats.
Ah - now I remember my point [Old age hitting me? My 4 year old Adina was playing with my beard and remarked about all the gray hairs.... Frum women are soooo lucky! Their "hair" never gets gray. 92 years old and not a gray hair on her head - at least that we can see...]:
Sometimes I feel like I inhabit one big mental hospital called the planet earth. My only "consolation" is that I too am a patient. I am also dealing with a lot of "stuff" [although now before Pesach we threw away some stuff B"H!:-). I once heard an Israeli boy give a dvar Torah in English and he wanted to say that there are two aspects to the halacha in question. He said "There are two stuffs".]. So is the human condition.
Our Avodah is to be cognizant of our emotional inadequacies and spend our lives fixing them.
BIG JOB!!!!
If we do it right then we will be able to be freed from our own personal mitzraiyims!!!
