Unfortunately, mental illness of all types are prevalent among many people here in the United States as well as in many places all throughout the world. From various anxiety disorders to depression to mental illnesses that have been brought on by trauma that the patient has experienced, there is no doubt about it that mental illnesses come in all shapes and sizes. And the impact of mental illness on any given person’s life can be incredibly severe – and incredibly difficult to deal with in order to live a normal life. In many cases, therapy helps, with art therapy in particularly rising in prominence and popularity among psychiatric care plans and psychiatric doctors all throughout the country.
But first, before we can discuss art therapy and there methods of therapy available, it’s important to discuss the mental illnesses that are seen most commonly in our society as we know it. First and foremost are the anxiety disorders. An anxiety disorder is not just one classification, however, as there are many subsets to anxiety disorders. OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is, for example, considered to be an anxiety disorder. And panic disorder alone has been diagnosed in up to 6 million people throughout the country, social anxiety disorder diagnosed in another 15 million.
In fact, anxiety disorders are more common than any type of other mental illness out there, with up to 40 million adults suffering from one in the United States alone. This means that more than 15% of the adult population (around 18%, to be a little bit more precise) has an anxiety disorder of some type. But adults are not the only ones who suffer, as up to 10% of teenagers have also been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, ranging from the aforementioned panic disorder to GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) to another type of the disease.
Along with anxiety disorders, depression is also incredibly commonplace in the United States, with rates of depression rising by as much as 20% with each and every year that passes us by and more than 300,000,000 people affected by depression on a worldwide scale. Depression can impact just about anyone. College students, for example, are highly affected by the condition, with more than one quarter of them saying that they suffer from depressive symptoms severe enough to impact their ability to do their schoolwork to the level that they would like. Postpartum depression is also common, with nearly 15% of all women developing symptoms of it within half of a month after giving birth – though symptoms of the condition that originate any time in that first year after delivery.
Fortunately, therapy can help many types of mental illness and the benefits of therapy are incredibly vast. From family therapy to art therapy to recreational therapy to music therapy, courses of treatment are commonly found all throughout the United States. However, before you can reap the benefits of therapy programs such as that of art therapy, it’s important to first get a proper diagnosis through a neuropsychiatric evaluation. In order to do this, you’ll need to find a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist who can begin the diagnostic process.
The diagnosis process can be a long one, and it can certainly take some trial and error to finally land on the right diagnosis. However, the process is well worth it, as the therapy that can be tailored to the patient’s needs once the right diagnosis has been reached can be so very beneficial. For many people, art therapy is the right kind of therapy.
Art therapy provides many needs for the patient suffering from mental illness. Art therapy is conducted by a licensed therapist and simply incorporates art within it, so it is still a very official and widely recognized way to give therapy to someone who needs it. Art therapy can even make the process of therapy easier, as it has been found that patients who partake in art therapy are often far more likely to open up and talk. Art therapy provides other means to expression other than language, however, meaning that important feelings and thoughts can be expressed directly through the art that is done.