THE ROLE OF BLOG PSYCHOLOGY IN ONLINE MENTAL HEALTH MOVEMENT: CURRENT STATUS AND IMPLICATIONS

Mental disorders contribute significantly to the global burden of disease, as 4 out of the 10 diseases with the highest burden are psychiatric. About 25% of all develop one or more psychiatric and behavioural disorders during their lifetime. Unipolar depression ranges as the leading mental disorder with respect to disability adjusted life years. The major psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and depression are found in all cultures and result in significant disability. As a result, the cost of mental disorders worldwide needs receiving increasing recognition (Kastrup & Ramos, 2007). Mental health is a global problem – one that needs greater worldwide attention because until now this has not been achieved. For instance, in the US, the world's sliding superpower, the prisons are the functioning mental-health-care system (Kleinman, 2009). Somewhere between a third and a half of all the homeless people in American cities suffer from mental illness.