Mental Illness Is Common, but Long-Lasting Mental Illness Is Rare
By Aaron Reuben, Jonathan Schaefer on July 14, 2017
Most of us know at least one person who has struggled with a bout of debilitating mental illness. Despite their familiarity, however, these kinds of episodes are typically considered unusual, and even shameful.
New research, from our lab and from others around the world, however, suggests mental illnesses are so common that almost everyone will develop at least one diagnosable mental disorder at some point in their lives. Most of these people will never receive treatment, and their relationships, job performance and life satisfaction will likely suffer. Meanwhile the few individuals who never seem to develop a disorder may offer psychology a new avenue of study, allowing researchers to ask what it takes to be abnormally, enduringly, mentally well.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/mental-illness-is-common-but-long-lasting-mental-illness-is-rare/
