Millions of people are diagnosed with mental illness every year and many of them do not have access to proper medical care. Reasons for this vary from economic background to the fact that mental illnesses are still a taboo topic in many countries around the world. Prejudice is mostly present in rural areas and persons with mental illness choose to turn to priests and religious persons to get help for their condition instead of medical practitioners specialized in the field of mental illness. Insider Monkey compiled a list of 16 countries with the highest mental illness rates in the world and the list shows that mental illness rates are high in both, developed and developing countries. Even countries that have a well-developed support system for persons diagnosed with mental illness have high rates of mental illnesses.

Term “mental illness” refers to a wide range of mental disorders which affect person’s behavior mood and overall functioning. Causes of mental illness can range from genetic to environmental factors but research shows that mental disorders are often caused by a combination of genetic, psychological, biological and environmental factors. Hereditary (genetic) factor refers to the fact that you are more likely to be affected by mental illness than someone who doesn’t have mental illness in his/her family but it does not mean, in any way, that you will definitely inherit mental disorder. Psychological trauma can trigger mental illness as well as certain environmental factors and exposure to various stressors. We can say that a mixture of these factors also affects positions of certain countries on mental health statistics list. There are different types of mental illness including anxiety disorders, mood disorders (such as depression and bipolar disorder), psychotic disorders (e.g. schizophrenia), eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating), personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders etc.