May is Mental Health Awareness Month – Can you pass this quiz?

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Surely, you’ve read an article about it, or attended Virtual Ability’s Mental Health Symposium. We hope you checked out the poster displays on Healthinfo Island. There have been lots of opportunities to learn the facts about mental health.

Are you ready to test your knowledge? Here’s a short true-false quiz. Try to answer all of them before looking up the answers!

1. Everyone gets depressed from time to time. Depression isn’t a real mental health condition. True or False?
   
   
2. Mental health diagnoses are common. True or False?
   
   
3. Mental health conditions are not really illnesses. True or False?
   
   
4. People with mental health conditions could just “snap out of it” if they really tried. True or False?
   
   
5. Someone with a mental health condition most likely brought it on themself. True or False?
   
   
6. If you have a mental health condition, you shouldn’t be employed. True or False?
   
   
7. People with mental health conditions are no more likely to be violent or dangerous to others than are people without mental health conditions. True or False?
   
   
8. Counseling helps people with mental health conditions, so nobody needs to be medicated. True or False?

Scroll down to find the answers.

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Answers

1. False. There is a difference between ordinary depression and clinical depression. Temporary mild sadness about something is not uncommon, and soon passes. Clinical depression is a serious condition that interferes with everyday activities and relationships. It is described as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
   
   
2. True. Mental health conditions are common worldwide and are nothing to be ashamed of. About one in five US adults and one in six children have some kind of mental health problem. Not all are serious, though, and the severity of each condition falls along a spectrum. Approximately one in twenty US adults has a serious mental health condition.
   
   
3. False. Mental illness is identified by its symptoms and causes. It is as real as any other kind of illness or disease. Diagnosis with a mental illness is helpful, because it is the key to access to appropriate care.
   
   
4. False. Stigmatization of mental illness is unfortunately common. This misbelief is harmful to persons with mental illness, because it blames the person for not getting better. Medical issues need medical treatment. Some symptoms can’t be easily controlled, however, even when the person is compliant with recommended treatment.
   
   
5. False. Mental health problems are complex, usually caused by an interactive combination of genetics, environmental factors, and life event triggers such as trauma. People are individuals, with different capabilities for dealing with these potential causes. But mental illness is never a “fault” of the person dealing with it.
   
   
6. False. Although underemployment of persons with mental illness is common, individuals living with mental illness can enter or return to the workplace. They can be as productive as any other employee; employers are legally required to provide appropriate accommodations for their needs. The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) provides employment modification suggestions for employers and employees.
   
   
7. True. Despite what is reported in the media, most people with mental illness are no more dangerous to others than are those without mental illness. In fact, a person dealing with mental illness is ten times more likely to be a victim of violence or abuse than are others.
   
   
8. False. While it is true that counseling or psychotherapy is a cost-effective and long-lasting treatment method that helps many people with common types of mental illness, some conditions need to be addressed through hospitalization and medication. Every condition and every individual is different and requires individualized treatment plans.