Percentage of People Who Seem Okay But Are Not

[TromboneAl]

I'm asking partly out of curiosity and partly related to a possible theme in an upcoming book.

There are people who outwardly seem happy and well-adjusted, but who are in fact dealing with problems such as depression, anxiety, or other mental issues.

What percentage of the population do you think falls into that category?

[Car-Guy]

99%, maybe more. It's all relative. Just about everyone gets depressed or anxious at times.

Now debilitating or significantly life affecting, probably far less but still a significant number.

[Nemo2]

118.5%

[Jerry1]

It depends on the definition. If you’re talking about say, mild anxiety, I’d guess the number to be rather high. Like near half. If you’re talking about something where a person struggles day to day and is just barely able to hide it from the rest of the world, I’d say closer to 10 percent.

[Just_Steve]

https://www.nami.org/learn-more/ment...by-the-numbers

Prevalence Of Mental Illness

Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. (46.6 million) experiences mental illness in a given year.1
Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S. (11.2 million) experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.2
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%.3
1.1% of adults in the U.S. live with schizophrenia.4
2.6% of adults in the U.S. live with bipolar disorder.5
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 posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and specific phobias.7
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.8

[cyber888]

A big part .. In a materialistic consumer society, where people value owning "stuff" and not getting what they want, they feel depressed. If you do get the "stuff" you want, you go into tons of debt, and then they get depressed drowning in debt after debt with no emergency fund. In countries that are not so materialistic, there's not a whole lot of people going into depression or panic attacks - they just accept their fate and live their life in more simplistic terms.

A lot of People have anxiety attacks and depression .. I've seen it happen with relatives and friends. I knew a student who could not attend classes the entire semester because of depression and the panic attacks actually paralyzed all of his body that he had to go to the hospital .. the fear and anxiety just paralyzed him.

I've never been depressed .. but remembered having an anxiety attack once from a bad dream that I woke up to. I guess I always saw things on the bright side, but many people don't.

[zesty]

This is my personal theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-lBmpz8Iso

[MRG]

Many of, that stats above are believable. If you are on Reddit check out r/anxiety or r/depression. It's not fun to have or live around.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl I'm asking partly out of curiosity and partly related to a possible theme in an upcoming book. There are people who outwardly seem happy and well-adjusted, but who are in fact dealing with problems such as depression, anxiety, or other mental issues. What percentage of the population do you think falls into that category?

Somewhere between 1 and 99%.

It probably depends on your definition of "dealing with problems such as depression, anxiety, or other mental issues".

Are you talking about people who are being treated by professionals but don't talk about it or show it?

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl ... people who outwardly seem happy and well-adjusted, but who are in fact dealing with problems such as depression, anxiety, or other mental issues...

I do not believe there are anyone who do not go through such a phase sometimes in their life. For most, it would be a transitory phase, and they got over it.

And you may not recognize them, not because they try to hide it as much as not wear their heart on their sleeve.

As to the percentage who are right now at this moment, I don't know. You have to define the degree of unhappiness. How depressed or anxious a person should be before it is counted? We are not always jumping up and down with joy. Most of the time, we are bouncing around the neutral line.

[Ronstar]

100% at one time or another. But not 100% every day.

[GenXguy]

100% but not everyday.
90% everyday.

[pacergal]

Most folks with diagnosed anxiety or depression work and live without any complications, living fully satisfying lives.

Have no idea as to %, but when I was on the benefits committee at work, a commonly known anti anxiety/anti depressant was the highest, most frequently described drug our insurance paid for.

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeea Are you talking about people who are being treated by professionals but don't talk about it or show it?

Yes, but also those who are struggling but have never discussed it with a professional.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacergal Most folks with diagnosed anxiety or depression work and live without any complications, living fully satisfying lives. Have no idea as to %, but when I was on the benefits committee at work, a commonly known anti anxiety/anti depressant was the highest, most frequently described drug our insurance paid for.

What do you mean by most? In fact it's the people who don't get a diagnosis and just gut it through that are most at risk. A GP armchair diagnosis with a quick script for Prozac don't fix squat.

[Teacher Terry]

Menopause can cause hormonal changes that lead to depression and anxiety also. There is a big difference between situational depression and a chronic deep depression. Same thing with anxiety. There is a wide range.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Yes, but also those who are struggling but have never discussed it with a professional.

There's no real way to know how many folks have never discussed it.

[lucky penny]

There's an old saying: "Be kind, since everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Very true, I think. Appearances are deceiving.

We've all seen couples who appear to be very happy suddenly announce they're splitting up.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl There are people who outwardly seem happy and well-adjusted, but who are in fact dealing with problems such as depression, anxiety, or other mental issues.

Is this a fair restatement: What percentage of people get depressed, get anxious, or have mental issues, but they seem happy and well adjusted? I'd think it is a very high percentage.

[candrew]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem Is this a fair restatement: What percentage of people get depressed, get anxious, or have mental issues, but they seem happy and well adjusted? I'd think it is a very high percentage.

It's not always the tears that measure the pain. Sometimes it's the smile we fake.