Who Are The Diagnosed and How Many Are There?

I started thinking about how many people in this world are suffering from a mental illness and are either in denial or embarrassed to find out the truth. According to the statistics, 1 in every 4 people suffer from a mental illness, but what would this ratio be if everyone who was really suffering from a MI was counted? Let's take my family for instance. My husband has recently been diagnosed with ADD. He could always seem to remember to do things for other people and loved the recognition, but at home it was an entirely different story. I would have to practically beg him to do anything for our house or family, which is why I became quite good at being a jack of all trades. Before I started school, I did all the handyman work, yard work, painting, as well as all my mommy chores, so I was pretty busy! I found myself hating cubscouts because he would spend countless hours preparing for camping trips and would even take an entire day off of work to pack, but when did he ever take a day off for me or to do anything to our house? I began to feel like, "Am I not important or good enough for him?" So, after a lot of long talks, he has started delegating some of his cubscout duties to other parents, because he was being taken advantage of without even realizing it.

I have 5 people in my immediate family, so we're at 1/5. My son has also recently been diagnosed with a mental illness, ADHD, so, of course, I told my husband he can't blame me for this one. This is all his fault, just joking, but kinda not! Okay, now we're at 2/5.

My oldest child has social issues. He does not like to be in crowded situations and would rather just stay home if there is even a chance he will be in an uncomfortable situation. He did see a psychologist for awhile and the conclusion was that he has anger management issues and is not where he should be in respect to being empathetic towards others. If we had continued treatment, he most likely would have some sort of diagnose by now. So, if we count him, that's 3/5.

My youngest child has his issues as well but not diagnosed, yet!

And as for me, who knows? I was a little baffled to find out that stuttering is considered a MI, which I have started to do when I get frustrated. I do believe, however that moms are the largest group of individuals that go undiagnosed, mainly because we don't have time and we always put everybody's needs before our own! I didn't have such a great childhood, so if for no other reason, it probably would benefit me to talk to someone about that, but I don't have the time or the money! Anyway, I find that the best therapy is just having friends. At least once a week, my girlfriend and I get together and complain about our husbands and whatever else we can think of, and it's awesome!!! If we're still keeping score, that's 4/5. At least there's one "normal" person in my family.

I believe it's such great therapy for anyone to just have friends and be around other people who they share something in common with. And as we have learned this semester, that's why psychosocial clubhouses, ACT programs, support groups, and just participating in leisure activities in general, even if it's nothing more than getting together and going for walk, are so beneficial to us all.

I found this very interesting chart that I would like you guys to look at. I want go into too much detail about it, because it's pretty much self-explanatory, and it just goes to show all of us how much of an impact MI can have on a person's life! Just click on the title to view it.