What is Mental Health?
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, function day to day, relate to others, make choices, and many other aspects of life. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood through adulthood, and lots of people experience changes in their mental health over time. Everyone has mental health, and it deserves our attention just as much as our physical health does.
What is Mental Illness?
A mental illness is a condition that affects thinking, mood, and/or behavior. There are many kinds of mental illnesses. Depending on the type and severity, a mental illness can negatively impact areas of our lives including our ability to get along with others, to engage in school or work, problem-solve, make decisions, and go about our daily activities. Each person who has a mental illness has a different experience - even two people with the same diagnosis. Research suggests that there are many interrelated causes of mental illnesses, and mental illness is not the result of just one thing. Environmental and lifestyle factors, life experiences, and genetics may influence whether someone develops a mental illness.
How Common is Mental Illness?
In 2022, 19.52% of New York adults were living with a mental illness. In the U.S., 19.86% or nearly 50 million adults experience a mental illness. This means that about one in five adults lives with a mental illness.
Let’s take Yankee Stadium as an example. The capacity of Yankee Stadium is approximately 50,000. 1 in 5 people would fill 20% of the stadium, or 10,000 seats!
Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) often face unique stressors and challenges that can impact their mental health, like systemic racism, discrimination, and intergenerational trauma. These challenges can lead to higher rates of mental illness within BIPOC communities. Access to culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health services may be limited, leading to disparities in treatment. BIPOC may also be uniquely impacted by mental health stigma, which can further lead to worse mental health outcomes. You can visit Mental Health America’s website to learn more.