What are the Common, Treatable Mental Illnesses?

Major Depression, the Anxiety Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are among the most common mental illnesses. When a person has mild symptoms, or during non-symptomatic periods, the person can be productive and function in wellness. Symptoms are typically triggered by stress - good or bad stress –but are thought to be quite largely genetic. They are the result of faulty brain chemistry. These brain illnesses are medical problems. Like other medical conditions, untreated mental illnesses tend to get worse so that recovery is less likely.

As many as half of those people with untreated, or improperly treated, mental illness turn to abused substances in what is referred to as “self-medication.” Addiction and a more difficult road to recovery may follow. Substance use is now included by some as being a mental health issue.

The National Institute of Mental Health states that half of the over 60 million Americans who live with mental illness onset with symptoms by the age 14. Twenty-five percent of those with mental illnesses onset between 14 and 24. Our nation needs to re-think its view of young adult behaviors with a knowledge of childhood mental illnesses in mind. Early recognition and treatment are important in recovery and in avoiding many negative consequences of childhood and young adult years of symptoms with brain illnesses. As many as two-thirds of the youth in the Juvenile Justice system have mental health problems.