Mental Illness and Relationships

Hello! My name is Sarah Triplett and my project is about the affects of mental illness and relationships. I conducted in-depth research on mental illness as a whole, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, proper reactions to specific and general symptoms, as well as general mental illness statistics. I also made an extensive survey asking about mental illness from both the afflicted and the loved ones perspective.

Mental Illness in our society is very prevalent in the U.S. today, 46.4% of adults in the U.S. will experience mental illness in their lifetime. However less than half, 44.8%, have no received help for their illness. Mental illness among adults is 20.6% in the U.S. Specifically for anxiety disorders 31.1% of adults will have one in their lifetime. 31.9% of adolescents (13-18) in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder. Relating to mood disorders, 21.4% of adults will experience a mood disorder in their lifetime and suicide as a whole is the 10th leading cause for death in the U.S. and higher if you are less than 50 years old.

Most of my project was research based. I initially started with the idea that I would do all mental illness. After going though the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders 5th edition) I realized how impossible that would be. With hundreds of illness' and only a year for both research and a survey it wouldn't be possible or at least not a good project. So I decided to go with the two foremost categories which interested me; mood and anxiety disorders. I did research into how the disorders occur, symptoms, proper ways to deal with both the disorder and symptoms, etc. Once I finished researching I complied my research into a survey which I then had people of many different lifestyles, ages, and a variety of other factors take. The results generally showed what I had already predicted, people being unaware of symptoms, unwilling to talk about mental illness, and reacting badly to some less than desirable symptoms some people with mental illness had. The final result of my project was a presentation informing people about my findings (via presentation and website), so in further relationships they react better. This will hopefully allow for relationships to thrive, even under the pressure the loved ones and those with mental illness often experience due to their disorder and symptoms.