Mental health comprises our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects our thinking, feelings, perception of the world around us and our actions. It helps us to determine how one handles stress, relationship with others, and making healthy choices.
Individual psychological and biological factors such as emotional skills, substance use and genetics can make people vulnerable to mental health issues.
Statistics show that 1 in every 5 individuals suffers from some form of mental health illness symptoms. 50% of mental health conditions begin by age 14 and 75% of mental health conditions develop by age 24. 970 million people around the world struggle with some mental illness. One in four people are affected by a mental illness at some point in their lives. 14.3% of deaths worldwide, or approximately 8 million deaths each year, are attributable to mental disorders.
To make matters worse worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of anxiety and depressive disorders have grown. Depressive symptoms grew from a base of about 193 million people worldwide to 246 million, which is about 28%. Anxiety disorders grew from about 298 million people affected to 374 million, which is about a 25% increase.
