The Importance Of Treating Mental Illness In the United States

Here in the United States as well as in many other parts of the world, neurobehavioral conditions are common. From anxiety disorders to PTSD brought on by traumatic life events, suffering from neurobehavioral conditions is becoming less and less stigmatized. If you suffer from a neurobehavioral condition or even multiple neurobehavioral conditions, seeking psychiatric care is very important. If your case is severe, a stay at a psychiatric hospital might be recommended, where you will be treated by skilled and highly trained psychiatric doctors until you are deemed mentally and physically stable enough to enter the world again. But whether or not your situation is serious enough for hospitalization, neurobehavioral conditions can almost always benefit from therapy. This brief article will detail a few common neurobehavioral conditions that are diagnosed here in the United States.

Depression is, perhaps, one of the most well known neurobehavioral conditions, and it is a mental illness that can effect anyone, no matter what their background (though certain risk factors for depression can definitely make it more likely that you will or will not develop the condition). In fact, depression rates are increasing by as much as twenty percent for each year that passes by, and a total of three hundred and fifty million people not only in the United States but all around the world are dealing with some type of depression, with more than ten percent of children dealing with some severity of the condition by the time that they turn eighteen years of age, with some children developing strong symptoms of depression early on in life.

Postpartum depression is also very prevalent, as it can happen to any new mother who has just delivered her child. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about postpartum depression that prevent many women from getting help, making it impossible to truly tell how widely postpartum depression touches new mothers. From recent statistics, however, it is estimated that as many as fifteen percent of women who develop postpartum depression will do so shortly after delivering, between the period of four weeks postpartum and six weeks postpartum, when their children are still very new. However, postpartum depression can develop any time within the first year after giving birth, with some women developing it almost immediately and other women not showing symptoms and signs of postpartum depression until their baby is ten or eleven months old. Both are normal for the course of the disease, which is usually treated talk therapy as well as medication, which it tends to respond to very well.

Aside from depression, anxiety disorders are also very common among neurobehavioral conditions. In fact, there are more people with diagnosed anxiety disorders than people who have been diagnosed with depression, with as many as six million people diagnosed with a panic disorder and more than fourteen million people diagnosed with social anxiety. On top of this, other anxiety disorders like generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder make the number of anxiety disorder sufferers an incredibly high one. It’s estimated that nearly half of all adults (as many as forty percent of them) have some type of anxiety disorder, if not multiple. Among the teenage population, as many as ten percent will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder before or during their teenage years.

No matter what type of mental illness or what neurobehavioral conditions you might be dealing with, it’s very important to seek out neurobehavioral care as soon as you realize that something is wrong. A combination of medication and therapy has worked wonders for many people and while it can most certainly be difficult and emotionally draining work, it is often something that will improve the life of the patient by a considerable degree. Mental illness and neurobehavioral conditions are certainly nothing to be ashamed about, especially when they are so prevalent not only in this country but in the entirety of the world as well. However, it is incredibly important for them to be treated, as this will allow the patient to function well in the world around them and in their own lives going forward, something that can be difficult when dealing with various mental illnesses.

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