Did you know that one in four adults – or approximately 57.7 million Americans – experiences a mental health problem in any given year?  Or that one in 17 lives with a serious, chronic mental illness?

Since 1990, National Mental Illness Awareness Week has been recognized by the U.S. Congress as a time for mental health advocates and patients to join together for various awareness-raising activities. Sponsored by National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the goal of this week is to transform the way we think about mental illness, which is defined by NAMI as “a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning.”

Like any other medical condition affecting a particular organ, mental illness is not caused by personal weakness or character defects, and it can affect individuals of any age, race, religion or income.  As an example, some famous people who are known to have lived with mental illness include Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Gandhi, Tennessee Williams and Mike Wallace (who was eulogized by one of our members last June).  Below is a new PSA ad for National Mental Illness Awareness Week 2012 that focuses on some of these legendary icons, stressing that “you are not alone in this fight.”

But what about feeling like no one understands what you’re going through?  That’s where finding others like you – such as those with the same diagnosis (or diagnoses), symptoms or treatment side effects – comes in.  At PatientsLikeMe, we have tens of thousands of patients sharing their experiences with more than 60 mental health conditions, including:

• Bipolar disorder
• Eating disorder
• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
• Major depressive disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Phobic disorder
• Postpartum depression
• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

In addition to exchanging in-depth treatment evaluations about the effectiveness and side effects of commonly prescribed medications such as Cymbalta, Klonopin or Wellbutrin, our members are connecting and supporting each other daily in our Mental Health and Behavior Forum.  Currently, there are more than 39,000 participants and more than 333,000 posts in this highly active forum, where you can find answers, empathy, humor and thought-provoking conversations day or night.

Get to know our mental health community – including what depression feels like to them or how PatientsLikeMe has helped them be more open about their condition – today.  Also, stay tuned for some tips from our community about what to do and not do when interacting with someone who is living with a mental health condition.

That’s what the American Cancer Society hopes.

Today, November 17th, is the Great American Smokeout, now in its 36th year.  It’s a day for quitting smoking or making a plan to quit.  The reason for doing so is pretty compelling:  tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the US.   Despite that, there are still more than 46 million American smokers, which is approximately 21% of the adult population.

Have you tried to quit smoking in the past year?  So did at least half of the current smokers in this country.  Quitting isn’t easy, but it’s easier when you have support.  Take the “Do You Need Help Quitting?” Quiz to determine your level of nicotine addiction as well as the kind of personal cessation plan you’ll need.  For extra motivation, check out the health benefits of quitting over time (which start as soon as 20 minutes afterwards!) as well how much money you could save by quitting.

Another way to find support is to connect with other smokers who are trying to quit.  PatientsLikeMe considers tobacco addiction a health condition, which is why we include it in our platform.  3,914 of our patient members say they are addicted to tobacco, with 1,263 of them officially diagnosed.  What are their methods of quitting?  Two commonly reported treatments are Buproprion (Wellbutrin), an antidepressant used as an adjunct for quitting smoking, and Varenicline (Chantix), a drug that blocks the pleasurable effects of nicotine on the brain. (Click each name to read our patients’ evaluations of effectiveness, side effects, cost and more.)

The bottom line is you don’t have to quit alone.  Join PatientsLikeMe and do it together.

In honor of this month’s Mental Illness Awareness Week, here’s a snapshot of what’s happening in our PatientsLikeMe Mood community. Launched in 2008, the community now has more than 18,000 patients. Below are some interesting facts about the community, so please read and share on!

DID YOU ALSO KNOW…

• You can search for patients under 15+ diagnosis categories, including depression, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, addiction to tobacco, addiction to alcohol, eating disorder and more.
• In a PatientsLikeMe research study recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, we revealed:
  • 26% of responding mood community members agreed or strongly agreed that using the site had reduced thoughts about self harm
  • 23% agreed they had decided to start therapy or counseling after interacting with others on the site
  • 22% agreed they needed less inpatient care as a result of using PatientsLikeMe.  (See our “Patient Voice” report, video and member interview on inpatient therapy).
• Members’ experiences on the treatment Amitriptyline was used in an award-winning paper presented at Medicine 2.0 last year.

How are our members treating their condition?

• Patients are using more than 1700 treatments, including prescription drugs, supplements, over-the-counter medications, life-style modifications, therapies, and more.
• The top lifestyle modification reported by our patients is positive self talk; and sleep is the #1 exercise cited.
• The most widely used prescription drugs reported by members are Lamotragine, Clonazepam and Bupropion; the top 3 supplements are Omega 3 Fish Oil, Multi-Vitamins, and Vitamin D.

What are their major symptoms?

• The 5 most common primary symptoms reported include: Back Pain, Dizziness, Headaches, Hyperventilation, and Muscle Tension.

What are they talking about?

• Some of the top topics “tagged” in our forum discussions to date include specific treatments (like Lamictal, Lithium, Wellbutrin and Seroqul), as well as borderline personality disorder, coping, anger and journaling.