11 Facts About Depression

1. Roughly 20 million people in the United States suffer from depression every year.
2. At some point in their lives, about one in four Americans will experience depression.
3. Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression than men.
4. People who are depressed are more prone to illnesses like colds than non-depressed people.
5. Continuous exposure to violence, neglect, abuse, or poverty may make people who are already susceptible to depression all the more vulnerable to the illness.
6. Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, more than 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression.
7. There are interrelationships between depression and physical health. For example, cardiovascular disease can lead to depression and vice versa.
8. Depression affects all people regardless of age, geographic location, demographic, or social position.
9. The World Health Organization estimates that depression will be the second highest medical cause of disability by the year 2030, second only to HIV/AIDS.
10. Many creative individuals experienced depression, including Ludwig van Beethoven, John Lennon, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Georgia O’Keefe, Vincent van Gogh, Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sylvia Plath.
11. More than 8 percent of adolescents in the United States suffer from depression at a given time.

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Sources: Random History, Psychiatry, Who, Depression Perception