77% of Americans have used one of these “unhealthy coping mechanisms” to deal with a mental health crisis…which one have you fallen into?

According to a study, more than three-quarters of Americans knowingly engage in unhealthy coping habits.

A survey conducted by Myriad Genetics in Salt Lake City, Utah, found that 77 percent of Americans say they use drugs or eat or sleep unhealthy to help cope with mental health issues.

These coping mechanisms sometimes help a person feel better in the short term, but have long-term consequences.

Dealing with mental health problems goes hand in hand with addiction, and this is confirmed in the US, where there were 107,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2021. More than four percent were suicides.

Many people dealing with mental illness struggle to find a treatment regimen that will relieve their depression and anxiety symptoms, leading them to resort to unhealthy self-medication rather than seeking advice from a mental health professional.

A nationwide survey conducted by the genetic testing company found addictive or unhealthy coping mechanisms that people most like to use, including substance abuse such as drinking or using marijuana.

These also included: gambling, not enough or too little sleep, eating too much or too little, excessive use of social media, binging TV shows and parties.

Dawn Johnson, a psychiatric nurse at the Indiana Center for Recovery in South Bend, said, “Many of my patients have struggled with depression and/or anxiety but have not been able to find treatment that makes them feel better.

So they turned to alcohol, drugs or destructive behavior to calm themselves, as it provided short-term relief.

“However, this behavior led to the deterioration of her mental health and the destruction of her life. I saw it personally.’

The GeneSight Mental Health Monitor survey found that 94 percent of Americans agreed that drug and behavioral addictions often mask deeper mental health problems.

But the same group said they were working on it anyway.

The Child Mental Health Crisis in America DISCOVERED

As many as nine in 10 school administrators say their students have moderate or severe mental health problems, and 57 percent of principals and other senior teachers said the problem is getting worse.

For example, 70 percent of people diagnosed with anxiety or depression slept too much or too little to cope with their symptoms.

About 40 percent used alcohol to survive, while 20 percent used marijuana.

About the same number of people took other medicines, such as painkillers, to ease their illness.

64 percent withdrew from social activities, leading to isolation that often exacerbated depression and anxiety.

Meanwhile, 49 percent said they watch series or movies to distract themselves from uncomfortable emotions.

While about 90 percent of those surveyed admit that you can’t party without depression, about 10 percent choose to go to a club anyway.

And almost everyone understands that excessive gambling is a band-aid for an underlying mental health problem, but that knowledge isn’t enough to deter nearly 10 percent of respondents.

The new research comes as the U.S. finds itself in a mental health crisis plagued by sky-high rates of substance abuse, feelings of isolation exacerbated during the pandemic, and other uniquely American problems such as near-constant school shootings and unaffordable health care. .

American children are reporting an increasing number of mental health problems, and while the pandemic has certainly exacerbated the problems, the numbers had been rising for years before Covid took the world by storm three years ago.

A study published last year found that nearly 10 percent of American children aged 17 and younger reported symptoms of anxiety, while just under 5 percent reported symptoms of depression.