The latest exhaustive study I read was from the mid-90's, in the United States. The chances of someone suffering from one of 30 different disorders at some point in their lives is about 32%; the chance of having one of these disorders for a lifetime (the majority of one's life) is less than half that.

Included in these disorders, however, are phobias and alcohol dependence, both of which hover around 14% of the population as a lifetime condition. Generalized anxiety comes in at about 8%, other drug abuse and major depression are 6% each, and extremely life-altering disorders like OCD and schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder come in at 1.5% of the population each.

These numbers include only medically diagnosed conditions, or convincing self-diagnoses, which are actually held to quite a high and reasonable standard.

So, if you include all those disorders, one can assume that in a typical American population, at any given time there will be about 32% of the population suffering from one or more of those disorders. The vast majority suffer or show clusters of symptoms in the short term (2 years or less).

I have only ever had temporary symptoms of any of these disorders, and none of them medically diagnosed. All of these were so low-level as to be questionable anyway.

frum