20 percent of Americans are mentally disturbed

Are there a lot of mentally ill Americans, or am I just crazy?

If you find yourself asking that question, odds might be more in your favor that you’re suffering from some sort of mental illness than you might think. According to the results of a new government report, 46 million Americans — or about one-in-five — have been diagnosed with such a disorder during the last year.

Taking into account all American adults, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) puts the tally of Americans having a mental illness at around 20 percent, with young adults aged 18 through 25 even more likely to be diagnosed at a rate of 30 percent.

"We all know people who have had a depression or an anxiety disorder, maybe something more serious like a bipolar disorder, but this is a pretty big number," Peter Delany, director of SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies, says of the study.

If you’ve been linked to a mental, behavioral or emotional problem based on the guidelines in the last publishing of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, you’ve made the cut of nearly 50 million other Americans in similar standing. The study adds that around 11.4 million adults are victims of “serious” mental illnesses — that is conditions that affect a person’s ability to normally function.

Just because you haven't swallowed a pill or gone other routes doesn’t mean you’ve escaped the list, either. While 46 million Americans are diagnosed sufferers of mental illness, only around 38 percent have received proper treatment for their condition.