In 1995 more teenagers and young adults died from suicide than died from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, pneumonia, influenza, birth defects, and stroke combined. Ninety to ninety-five percent of people who commit suicide had a diagnosable psychiatric illness. Fifteen percent of people with severe, untreated depression commit suicide. Alcohol and drugs used to contend with the pain of mental illness more often worsen it. The combination of alcohol and depression is implicated in the majority of all suicides.
Supportive relationships are the key to the daily management of mood disorders.
The Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of a physical or psychiatric disability. People with a mood disorder are not allowed to hold government office positions, especially the office of the President. Stigma, or disgrace, prevents most people from getting help in time to prevent acute depressive episodes. Depressive illnesses tend to strike the most intelligent, insightful, and creative people among us. If we, as a society, educate ourselves about mood disorders and end the stigma associated with them, many individuals who desperately need help will seek treatment, and we will all gain positively from this experience.