Impacting an estimated 300 million people, depression is the most-common mental disorder and generally affects women more often than men.
The most common mental illnesses in Australia are Anxiety Disorders, Affective Disorders (such as Depression) and Substance use disorders (ABS 2022a).
Each year, about 1 in every 5 Australians will experience a mental illness. Almost half the population has experienced a mental health disorder at some time in their life.
Mental illness in Australia
One in five (20%) Australians aged 16-85 experience a mental illness in any year. The most common mental illnesses are depressive, anxiety and substance use disorder. These three types of mental illnesses often occur in combination.
20% or 4.8 million Australians had a mental or behavioural condition, an increase from 18% in 2014-15. 13% or 3.2 million Australians had an anxiety-related condition, an increase from 11% in 2014-15. 10% had depression or feelings of depression, an increase from 9% in 2014-15.
The most common are anxiety disorders major depression and bipolar disorder. Below is more information on these disorders and how ACCESS can help.
Interestingly, the number of mental health issues does differ from state to state. For example, Tasmania sees the highest rate of anxiety and depression -- at 21.6% and 18.1% affected respectively, while Queenslanders show the highest stress levels, with 27.5% reporting that they're regularly affected by stress.
Treatment rates varied greatly for different mental disorders, for instance. Adolescents with ADHD, conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder received mental health care more than 70 percent of the time. By contrast, teens suffering from phobias or anxiety disorders were the least likely to be treated.
Borderline personality disorder is one of the most painful mental illnesses since individuals struggling with this disorder are constantly trying to cope with volatile and overwhelming emotions.
Personality disorders are some of the most difficult disorders to treat in psychiatry. This is mainly because people with personality disorders don't think their behavior is problematic, so they don't often seek treatment.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has long been believed to be a disorder that produces the most intense emotional pain and distress in those who have this condition. Studies have shown that borderline patients experience chronic and significant emotional suffering and mental agony.
Anxiety disorder is the most treatable of all mental illnesses. Anxiety disorder produces unrealistic fears, excessive worry, flashbacks from past trauma leading to easy startling, changes in sleep patterns, intense tension and ritualistic behavior.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that 2.1 million Australians, or 9.3 per cent of our population, were suffering from some form of depression. On average, around 1 in 6 people – 1 in 5 women and 1 in 8 men – will experience MDD at some point in their lives.
Mental health is a key component of overall health and wellbeing (WHO 2021). In any year in Australia, an estimated 1 in 5 people aged 16–85 will experience a mental health disorder (ABS 2022).
50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
A mental health issue may be considered a disability, but not always. There are many different types of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, personality disorders and schizophrenia.
Countries with the least depression include several smaller, lower-income countries in South Asia such as Brunei, Myanmar, Timor-Leste and Mali, where less than 2.5% of the population is reported to have a depressive disorder.
3 million Australians are living with anxiety. Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia. 1 in 4 people will experience anxiety at some stage in their life.