Every every now and then chances are you’ll ask yourself: How the time flies? Whether you are confused about how quickly a day passed otherwise you’re quick to take into consideration years passed by, you’ve got probably felt like you’ve got lost time over and once again. Yet 44% of Americans feel like they’ve lost time of their lives as a result of a widely known cause: poor mental health.
For people diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety, this percentage almost doubles, reaching 78%.
That’s in response to a brand new national survey by Countless geneticscalled GeneSight Mental Health Monitor. In February, the genetic testing company and ACUPOLL precision research surveyed 1,000 adults within the US about their mental health. The results, published in April, show the chronological burden of mental illness.
Of respondents diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety, 50% said they’d lost years of their life as a result of poor mental health, while 12% said they’d lost a long time.
“For a patient who is struggling, time passes much more slowly than for the rest of us.” Debbie Thomas, EdDsaid a psychiatric nurse in Prospect, Kentucky, in a GeneSight Press release. “One of my patients told me that when he woke up in the morning, he counted how many hours it took until he could go back to bed. That’s pretty telling when someone is deep in depression and anxiety to that extent.”
Many people reported that poor mental health robbed them not only of time itself, but in addition of necessary moments. Approximately 71% of respondents reported that this prevented them from being fully present for necessary events, and greater than half of individuals with depression and/or anxiety reported that their mental health caused them to miss a vital life event. Respondents with these conditions reported feeling guilty, hopeless, useless, worthless and/or self-critical missing milestones.
Additionally, 33% of respondents with depression and/or anxiety cited ineffective mental health treatments as a reason for missing necessary events.
The overwhelming majority of individuals with depression and/or anxiety, 82%, said their mental health had prevented them from having fun or having fun with themselves prior to now 12 months, in comparison with 78% of all respondents.
Patients with depression and/or anxiety are likely to be as resentful of the time they feel they’ve lost due to poor mental health as they’re of getting a mental illness, he said Sharon Philbin, MSNa registered nurse in a sophisticated practice setting in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
“Patients who have lost time due to depressive episodes or periods of anxiety often feel a sense of loss, which further complicates their psychological situation,” Philbin said within the press release. “Many of my patients say they are grateful they are feeling better, but they worry it could happen again.”
Only 16% of survey participants said they felt “ready to take on the world” after a depressive episode. You also feel:
- Exhausted: 60%
- Coming out of the fog: 50%
- Disappointed at missing out on life: 47%
The survey was based on respondents self-reporting that they’d been diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorder by a health care provider. While the surveys also included mental health screening tools – the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) for depression and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-2 (GAD-2). for anxiety – it’s unclear what varieties of these disorders the respondents had.
If you wish immediate psychological support, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
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