Single, double or triple burden? Why we should raise awareness on Mental diseases in SEE
Depression, anxiety disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and phobias, eating disorder, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychotic disorders including schizophrenia; all of them can be counted among one term: mental disease. At first sight of this list, I got you thinking that this is none of your business. In fact, you are feeling totally fine. Then I’m sorry to take you off your pink cloud by saying the following: mental health is everyone’s business. It affects the lives of many people, influences careers, and capacity of society as a whole. Considering that the prevalence of mental diseases is on a rise globally and high incidence rates can be found in South-East European (SEE) countries, it might be good to dig deeper into this subject.
Let’s start by looking at some numbers on SEE’s current mental health status. It is generally estimated that one in seven people suffer from some form of severe mood disorder or depression during their lives. Depressions and mental disorders are treatable, however, projections are that around 50% of the cases are left untreated nowadays. When looking at discrimination in workplaces, only 18–30% of the SEE population with some form of mental health disease have a job. Whereas on top of that mental diseases count for 37% of social welfare benefits and disability pensions in Romania and 25% of all government funded social welfare benefits in Moldova, clearly mental health is a matter of society as a whole.
“Depressions and mental disorders are treatable, however, projections are that around 50% of the cases are left untreated nowadays.”
Suffering from a mental disease doesn’t mean you’re flawed nor does it imply weakness or laziness. In fact, mental disorders are common and expectations are that more than 50% of the population will be diagnosed with at least a certain form during their lifetime. Just as there are many different kinds of mental diseases, neither one cause of onset can be ascribed. Genes and family history, experiences in life like abuse or stress, biological factors like chemical imbalances in the brain, a traumatic brain injury, use of alcohol or drugs, feeling lonely or isolated and having few friends are just some factors that can contribute to the onset of mental diseases.
However, mental diseases’ widespread existence doesn’t mean that accepting the situation is the thing to do. In fact, when suffering from any form of mental disorder, seeking help in time is crucial. As can be seen from reports written by the WHO, co-morbidities and interactions between mental and physical (ill) health can exist. On one hand, mental diseases like depression can occur as a consequence of suffering from other communicable and non-communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. On the other, severe mental health problems themselves can also be a leading factor to poor physical health, partly due to their interrelation with risk factors such as smoking, poor diet, alcohol and substance abuse. Considering medications used for mental diseases, they can affect the incidence of diabetes type II, poor mental health also adversely influences many physical diseases — for instance, by negatively affecting people’s adherence to treatment. And what about the impaired quality of life as an outcome of mental diseases and disability?
“However, mental diseases’ widespread existence doesn’t mean that accepting the situation is the thing to do.”
Existing communicable diseases, combined with rising rates of (non-communicable) mental disorders that in turn can lead to substance abuse, injuries and self-harm: not acting onto the rising incidence of mental health problems can raise the burden of disease from single, to double, to triple. With the life expectancy of people with severe mental health problems being 20–30 years lower than those of the general population and their prevalence applying great pressure on South-European healthcare systems, raising awareness on their existence and preparing our health systems for its burden is the least thing we can do. Only together we can increase productivity, prevent self-harm and improve well-being for all.
