How common is mental illness?

At a given point in time 20% of adults either will have a mental illness, or will have had one within the last 12 months. That’s according to a survey done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2007. The mental illnesses they looked at were anxiety, mood (depression and bipolar), and substance use disorders.

To break that 20% down a bit further: 11.3% will have one mental illness, and 8.7% will have more than one, most commonly a mood disorder and an anxiety disorder.

Another question in the survey looked at mental illness across a person’s lifespan. The ABS found that 45% of adults had experienced mental illness at some point in their lives.

So, how common is mental illness? At a rate of one in five adults in a given year, I’d say it’s definitely common enough that we should know more about it.