Why we chose our topic! SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM:

1. Our scientific problem is figuring out how deep the  relation between your mental and physical health is and how much they affect each other. We would like to see how deeply they really relate and try to get as much info as possible. Mental and physical health is a very important topic, at the end it’s our health in general but it’s especially helpful if you know how one can affect the other. In the same way your mental health will affect your physical health, so will your physical health affect your mental health, we wanna to see the way our mental and physical selves respond with each other and why it is so critical to keep a balance between the two? 

 

2. Another problem we are looking into is what are the main causes of bad mental health. What things most commonly affect our mind and how can we find responsible and healthy solutions to them? It’s important to stay self aware and know both what the causes and solutions are. Many people aren’t very aware of how deeply many things can affect your mind and lead into several serious health issues. We want to know what things are the actual base root and cause of such serious psychological problems.

 

3. We would like to know how our general health has been over the years in different places. In the past how were records of mental issues dealt with, are they most common in a certain place? And if so what could be the causes? How is our wellbeing as humans today? What are some predictions for the future? Is their anything we as a society could do, how are we affected and what are we doing to affect our health. 

SCIENTIFIC METHOD:

First of all, our main question is how much can your mental health affect your physical health and how can you best support a healthy lifestyle? We have split our questions into 5 sections so we can understand things in a more meaningful way that is easy to understand. We also are looking into parts of your body, especially the brain since it’s most definitely one of the most (if not the most) important human organs. We will try to implement the use of charts or graphs in our 5th section about the numbers in certain mental health issues over the years. We also listed things in number order as well many times especially in our 4th section which was about bad mental health causes and effects. We didn’t really have anything especially specific but wrote an introduction then started going through specific parts/sections one by one or using lists.

 

How Does Mental Health Affect Our Physical Body?

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Introduction 

We have chosen the topic of how mental health may affect our physical self for our science fair topic this year. We both believe it's important to think about topics like health, both physical and mental, especially in our current society. This is a theoretical research project which will focus on the importance and connections between our mental, and physical health. It is critical to try and see how important our general health and well being is, all around the world, past, present, and future. Our project will also be divided into 5 sections to help more clearly explain topics, the 5 smaller topics will be listed below.

Our topics:

1. How does mental health affect our upper body?
2. How does mental health affect our middle body?
3. How does mental health affect our lower body?
4. How Can You Improve Your Mental Health?
5. What Are The Numbers In Mental Health?

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How Does Mental Health Affect Our Upper Body?

This section will specifically focus on the way Mental health affects our upper body (shoulders and up.) Although it may not seem like our mental health affects our physical self, it is all very closely connected. The upper body is easily one of the most affected by mental health since our literal brain is a part of our upper body, we will look into both the results of phycological behaviours and the actual parts of our upper body, focusing heavily on the brain. 

 

We will begin by looking at the actual main parts of the brain, the human brain is the most complex organ in the body so we'll attempt to explain it as well as possible without going too far into depth, as it would take up too much time. The brain is a critical organ to look into when talking about health, whether physical or mental because it is where all organs of your body, eventually connect to and, the place where all your thoughts and emotions regulate. Some parts of the brain will likely come up in the other sections too but will be explained here since it is a part of your head. After explaining parts of a brain we will also individually go through parts of your shoulders and up and explain how they are affected by your mental health.

Diagram of brain: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cerebrum:

• This is not shown in the diagram but is a crucial part since it is in relation to your emotional regulation.
• The cerebrum is located near the front of the brain slightly below the forebrain.
• Is important for your abilities/skills like sensory, processing information, hour behavior, and language.
• Also contributes to how you feel/your emotions 

 

Amygdala:

• This is also not shown on the diagram but once again, a critical part to take note of when talking about mental health.
• Is the primary source of your control over emotional responses like when you are stressed or in an argument.

 

Hindbrain: 

• Is in relation to the medulla, pons and cerebellum.
• Is in charge of your heartbeat, breathing, sleep and a few other similar minor functions. 

 

Pons:

• Transmits signals between a few parts of the brain
• In charge of your body temperature, contributes to controlling some facial muscles, manages your taste and smell, etc, etc.

 

Spinal cord:

• In charge of delivering the messages between your brain and any other part of your body.

 

Forebrain:

• This part of your brain is vital to your mental health due to its relation with your thinking.
• The forebrain plays a big role in how and what information your brain will process.

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we have looked into the parts of a brain we will begin to explain the actual physical effects bad mental health can have. Before we begin explaining, we would like to clarify that other than the brain which is affected directly, MOST other parts are affected due to the actions done when you are in a bad place mentally (this applies for the next two topics/questions too.) For a starting example, lack of sleep. This is both a mental and physical thing. It’s one of the most common things that could badly affect your mental and physical health. Lack of sleep could be due to insomnia or bad sleeping schedules, sometimes because of bad habits or sometimes intentionally just because someone doesn't wanna sleep. Sometimes one of the reasons people may choose not to sleep even when they need it is to avoid the next day, by staying up it feels as if the time is going slower even if it isn’t. Many people do this if they are afraid or stressed or just in a bad mental state. It’s important to get enough sleep because in general you need it to function, you need energy and rest, especially your brain, many parts (like your hindbrain/pons) will have difficulty functioning if you can’t/don’t get enough sleep.

 

Brain: Many studies have shown that a bad mental health and immense stress can damage your brain cells and its parts. Under a large amount of stress or troubles, many parts of your brain are unable to properly perform their job, particularly parts like the cerebrum, amygdala, forebrain and any parts focused on information processing, decision making, cognitive functions and emotional responses. Your brain will be left with confusions and troubles which may impair your ability to think clearly. Troubles in your brain will also of course give you troubles with your entire body as a whole.

 

Eyes: Just like many other parts of your body, the eyes are especially close in relation to the brain. Everything we see is processed and handled by the brain for our comprehension. A bad mental state may come with habits or problems that could damage your eyes, your eyes are an exceptionally sensitive area that could easily somehow be harmed. There are cells in your eyes called rods and cones in charge of what colours you see, if they get damaged you could lose your ability to properly see colours.  Overusing your eyes for whatever reason you need  can also put your eyes in a serious strain that can be fatal. Commonly, too much screen time is something that affects and is affected by your mental health. This is harmful because when you are concentrating on a screen, you blink less, because of that your eyes get dried up and are harmed. Generally if your brain is already affected by your mental health so will your eyes be, it could begin with some blurriness every now and then lead to serious damage.

 

Dental Health: In many cases, when someone is having troubles with their mental health, hygiene is difficult to keep up with, particularly dental health. Majority of teeth problems come from being unable to keep the area clean or having too much of a certain type of food/item in your mouth. If the person is unable to keep up with maintaining oral hygiene it would result in(chronological order):

1. Bad breath: The first thing that will happen is bad breath. Bad breath occurs when you don't brush your teeth after eating or drinking and the residues get stuck in your mouth. These particles can get stuck in your teeth and in some cases your tongue,and because some foods have smells attached to them it will linger in your mouth until you brush your teeth.
2. Enamel starts to break down: When you eat sorting and don't brush your teeth plaque will start to accumulate on your teeth and over time this plaque will turn into tartar which aids in the erosion of the enamel. And when your enamel fully erodes,it can not be regained.

 

Hair: In this case we are just gonna be mostly talking about the hair in your head, not body hair. Similar to dental health, some of the problems can be very much related to hygiene problems.  Most people on average have roughly around 100,000 hair strands. Every strand of your hair consists of dead cells which are sealed off and filled with a protein called keratin. Since our hair is so thin and fragile, it can be damaged very easily. Damaged/dead hair isn’t too harmful, it's very common but nothing to worry about too much since it is not especially harmful in any way. Some actual problems could be things like lice. Lice are small parasites that typically live in your hair. Lice can grow in numbers fast and take blood from your scalp that can result in itching. They normally spread fast and can spread by things like physical contact or a dirty environment. In general bad health care will result in itchiness in the scalp, a dry scalp, and difficulties with managing your hair and comfort. 

 

Neck: Another very important body part is our neck! Our neck is necessary for us to be able to move and control our entire body since it is the body part that connects our head (where the brain is located) to the rest of our body. The neck also contains part of the spine: the cervical spine. The cervical spine includes 7 bones and helps protect the spinal cord.   

The cervical is located a bit around the back of your neck, it helps carry the load of your head/skull. This cervical also helps you stabilize your neck and move your head/neck around. Sometimes overworking yourself or lots of stress can lead you to have bad posture, this will be one of the things that will negatively affect your neck. Your neck can also be easily sprained, harsh physical damage on your neck like over twisting it can lead to a sprain. You normally will not feel the pain right away however, but damage can be very hurtful. Any damage to the neck can cause your whole body to feel a bit weak since once again our neck is the part connecting our brain to the rest of our body.

 

Ears: The ears are made up of several very small parts meaning that they are a specifically fragile body part, meaning they could very easily be damaged too. The most common ways your ears could be damaged are:

1. Physical Damage: Getting a cut/scratch on your ear, bumping it into something,  your ear getting hit by something
2. Pressure: Quick changes in the air pressure around you
3. Loud noises: Your ears are sensitive, noises too loud may damage all the very delicate pieces of your ears.

Damages like these can cause loss of hearing, earaches, pain in your ears, loss of balance, ringing in your ears and even dizziness.

 

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How Does Mental Health Affect Our Middle Body

This topic will be explained just like the first question however will focus on summarizing mostly about parts above your hips yet below your neck rather than the head/neck. Once again we will split up explaining part by part of your body unless it is something general. Our “middle body” in this scenario includes parts like your stomach and arms so, it is also of course in charge of many things. Some of those things are functions like your digestion, movement of blood, breathing, and so on.

 

Stomach: Located below your liver but above your intestines is your stomach! The food you eat goes through your esophagus to your stomach, your stomach then allows you to digest and break down the food that you eat for nutrients. After the food is digested it is passed down to your intestines. We will begin with stress, stress is one of the things that can have a negative effect on your stomach. Stress may make your digestion system slower than it should be which could be the cause of sudden constipation and bloating. In the same way stress can slow your digestion, it can also speed it up causing diarrhea. In general, too much stress will take a bad toll on your stomach just like it will with basically every other part of your body. Another way your stomach may be damaged is a bad eating habit. This could be mainly 3 things, digesting too much alcohol, not getting enough proper food or eating too much to a point it’s unhealthy. We will list the 3 points below: 

1. Firstly, too much or too much heavy liquor can be very injurious for the reason that alcohol may cause your stomach to create too much acid than required, this can then lead to inflammations and pains.
2. Lack of proper food is commonly due to either harsh living conditions where it is difficult to get food or an ED (Eating disorder). This is dangerous because without getting the amount of food you need regularly, you will also lack in nutritions for your body. Nausea, dizziness, constipation and even diarrhea could become common in your daily life making it difficult to perform everyday activities.
3. Overeating for a large portion of time may also lead to quite a few problems. There's a chance of developing diabetes which could increase chances of damage to your whole body as well. This could also cause you to have a few digestive problems since your stomach may be too full giving your intestines trouble. This of course would also give you some discomfort and trouble getting rest.

 

Liver: The liver is a large organ in the abdomen that performs many important functions for your body such as blood filtering and help with food digestion. Alcohol consumption over a long period of time could cause your liver harm because every now and then alcohol may kill off a few liver cells, losing too many could result in permanent damage if not checked and stopped. Obesity could also cause harm to your liver due to fatty liver disease. Overall if something you do leads to your liver being harmed, you may encounter problems like diseases, blood clots, scarring, and sometimes even life threatening issues.

 

Arms: One of the parts of our body that the majority of people use most to do daily activities are the arms.  Firstly we will start off with the topic of self harm. This is a very sensitive topic but of course also needs to be spoken about and will likely be brought up again a bit later on. Self harm is the act of intentionally doing something that can harm you to manage difficult emotions. The most common way people do self harm is cutting themselves, I think it’s a bit obvious how this can be harmful but it is most frequently done on the arms. This is harmful for many reasons, for one it damages your skin, can lead to infections, and also can cause both internal and external bleeding. 

 

Heart: Located around the middle of your chest is your heart, your heart can be very easily damaged yet it is also a very important body part. The heart is in charge of your blood flow and often seen as the second most important body part, right behind the brain which is the most important organ. Yet again bringing up alcohol, you can probably tell by now that too much heavy liquor over a long period of time can easily be quite fatal to your body as a whole. For the heart specifically, too much alcohol could cause strokes or high blood pressure. Some mental illnesses/disorders (eg:depression and constant anxiety) could also potentially expand your chances of developing heart diseases. Injuries like that could be the reason for heart failure, heart failure is when your heart is unable to properly pump the amounts of oxygen rich blood needed throughout your body. This could cause pains throughout your body, swollen body parts, irregular heartbeats and trouble breathing.

 

Lungs:  The lungs are the third most important organs in our body, we need them to breathe and carry the oxygen and carbon dioxide in our bodies. Most people have 2 lungs but are able to live with 1 as well. Many lung problems relate to breathing, what you inhale and what you exhale. Since your lungs are mostly in charge of your breathing, mental health problems like intense anxiety which could cause hyperventilation or irregular breathing do connect back to your lungs in a way. Smoking habits/addictions or constantly being somewhere with bad air pollution can also be damaging to your lungs. All the smoke in cigarettes are filled with many harmful chemicals that can quickly reach your lungs and from then spread out through your bloodstream to your entire body. Smoking can also damage tiny hairs (the cilia) in your body that are in charge of helping keep your lungs clean. Any lung damage would likely result in several types of breathing damage, if especially serious, even death.

 

Thoracic & Lumbar Spine:  Returning to the topic of our spines from much earlier, the next two sections are called the thoracic and lumbar spine. The lumbar vertebrae is made up of 5 bones and the thoracic spine is made up of 12 bones. Just like the cervical they help protect the spinal cord. If these two vertebrae are damaged and left without treatment, your spinal cord may be damaged. This is very vital because the spinal cord is one of the things that allows the brain to give information to the rest of your body and guide instinctive reflexes. So if the spinal cord were to be damaged, your nervous system would be damaged and you may even face paralysis depending on what extent the spinal cord was injured at. Your vertebrae could get damaged due to some sort of physical force.  

 

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How Does Mental Health Affect Our Lower Body

Of course, yet again very similar to our first two topics, we will now focus on the lower body, this will include our hips and below! This section's focus is the hips, some lower parts of your spine and all parts of your legs. These parts of our bodies may not be as crucial as other parts since they do not have as many vital organisms in charge of some whole system, either way they are still very important and necessary to take care of.

 

 

Thigh: Bringing up the topic of self harm again, it is just like when we were explaining how our arms were affected, alongside the arms, the thighs are also unfortunately a very common location where self harm is performed, also affected similarly to how your arms are affected. Some other ways your thighs may be injured are physical activities, overworking them or possibly twisting them during any sort of physical activity like sports or exercise. This may cause your thighs to be swollen and can inflict pain upon them, difficulty moving around your legs and any activities which include use of your legs. 

 

Feet: When someone is in a bad mental state it can lead to poor hygiene and in this case with your feet,if you don't take care of your feet your toenails will start to grow very long. Then after that your feet will start to smell very bad. In the worst case scenario you might develop a foot fungus.The foot fungus occurs when your feet are in damp/moist environments and when you put your feet in closed toed shoes. 

 

Calf: Your calf is located in the backside of the lower part of your leg, below your knees. Its key functions mostly just include supporting your body to allow you to stand up straight and move your legs around to run, wall, jump and so on. Just like the thighs, the most probable way your calves will get hurt is through some sort of physical activity or sport. Trouble in your calves will mostly just give you the common difficulties of walking around, exercising, doing sports or just in general being physical, especially when an activity is focused on the legs.

 

Sacrum & coccyx vertebrae: These two vertebrae being a part of the spine too just like the previous 3 vertebrae we went through of course are indeed very similar to the last 3. Your Sacrum is located around your lower back, the second lowest set of bones in your spine behind the coccyx, the coccyx is located right below the sacrum, the base/lowest part of your spine. Your sacrum/coccyx is a generally strong part, the main way it may get damaged is a direct physical force applied to the area it is located in. Any damage done to the two parts will end up affecting you similarly to how you are to be affected when any other part of your spine is damaged, it will damage your spinal cord/nervous nerves. The only big difference is that it will mainly affect your legs and lower part of your body, you most likely will feel discomfort and trouble functioning those parts/organs of your body. 

 

 

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How Can You Improve Your Mental Health?

Now that we have looked into the deeper connection and results between the effects of mental health to our physical health, it's important to actually look into how we can notice it and improve it. Most of the previous information could possibly be irrelevant if you don't actually know how to use it for the benefit of yourself and others. 

 

To start us off, we will just sort of explain the most common causes that easily affect our mental health and how to slowly help heal from them.  Of Course there are many causes that could put you in a bad mental state but for now we will just go with the most common ones in general. Note before reading: it naturally takes time to heal and everyone copes differently, these are just some suggestions and if you or anyone you know is in a difficult position remember it takes time to heal but it is most definitely possible!

 

 

1.  Grief

• How it affects: Grief is a very common emotional experience that could and should have a bad effect on your mental health. Grief is mostly experienced after losing someone dear to you and it is a completely normal emotional response however if you do not receive the support and care during those times, it could be critical. Of course it only naturally would take a long time to heal from grief and would definitely leave a scar, that is nothing out of the ordinary but, it can only really begin to be a big problem if you are unable to heal from it after an extended period of time. Being unable to mostly move on after many months-years could be the cause of many mental disorders and habits which would of course affect your physical health too as explained earlier on.
• How to heal: For one, take some time to accept and let go of the one you lost, be patient and don’t try to rush it or simply distract yourself. Distracting yourself doesn’t actually help all that much, in the end it will likely just come up again later, still in some aspects it could be helpful. If you are comfortable, try sharing how you feel with your trusted friends, therapist or online groups/communities. Make sure you take care of yourself physically too, get lots of sleep and make sure to try and stay in a clean environment. You can try to start a new hobby, look into your religion, meditate and do things you enjoy. Just remember, there is no need to rush, it’s normal to go through many things when experiencing grief, just do your best to make steady progress.

 

2. Genetics/Physical disabilities

• How it affects: In a lot of scenarios, mental/physical illnesses can be passed down through a bloodline, for example Queen Victoria is said to have had Hemophilia B passed down in her bloodline. If it is a mental illness passed down, it is quite obvious how it would affect your mental health since it is already a part of your mental health. If it is a physical illness, it could oftentimes be a disability, disabilities could give people difficulties in life most people wouldn’t have and additionally could lead to bullying and ostracization.  
• This is a little bit harder to heal from since you cannot just make the problem go away in most scenarios, normally it’s something people unfortunately have to live with. A way you can still try to heal is getting support needed for your health issues and slowly finding adjustments you need to make your life easier.

 

3.  Loneliness

• How it affects: Loneliness can lead to antisocial behaviour and social anxiety. Many studies and research have shown that socialization is a vital part of human development and growth, without enough of it, it could damage your brain. A lot of mental health problems can be helped a little by having someone to support you, it always feels better knowing people care about you. Long term Isolation in general can also be very unhealthy, it’s great to take breaks and be alone but the actual feeling of loneliness is much more troubling. 
• How to heal: Try to find a group of people or maybe even just one person you could talk to every now and then. This of course can be especially difficult if you have some sort of mental disorder like social anxiety but the best way to get through it is to slowly leave your comfort zone, this is much easier if you have somebody to support you. If you are comfortable with it, try joining clubs or groups of things you are interested in. It could also be a little easier to join an online group to talk to people at least, if you choose to do that, make sure to still try to go out every now and then for your health. If you are having difficulty trying to find someone to talk with you can go to a therapist, of course some families unfortunately cannot afford therapists but there are many other free online alternatives (just make sure to stay safe and talk to reliable people!!)

 

4.  Discrimination/bullying

• How it affects: Bullying is a major contributor to insecurity and/or self harm (Self harm is most normally done to distract oneself from mental pain by putting attention to physical pain). Some examples of the insecurities people can get from being bullied mainly consists of being insecure of one's interests,looks and heritage.
• How to cope with discrimination/bullying:Some ways to cope with discrimination/bullying can consist of,talking to people around you that you can trust,finding a therapist,and taking a break from toxic environments. If you have the option available, try to reset, maybe move schools or communities, and work on your mindset.

 

5.  Harsh living conditions

• How it affects:When a person is brought up in harsh living conditions,they are most likely to believe that the conditions that they are living in is normal and that they might bring up their own children in the same conditions that they grew up in and not try to bring up their children in better conditions.But the different kinds of harsh living conditions have different effects of people.One type of harsh living condition is poverty.Poverty can either have positive or negative affects on the people living in poverty,but that depends on the person and what destiny they choose to live.

6.  Trauma

• How it affects: Trauma can easily affect you and be one of the hardest things to heal from your entire life. It can increase your chances of having mental disorders and give you a warped impression of many things as well. Your behaviour and emotions towards specific things may also be more intense or troubling. Specific things may be more difficult for you then they would be for others around you. Sometimes you may also develop PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

 

7. Childhood Neglect 

• How it affects:Being neglected as a child can lead to you neglecting others around you thinking that the treatment you are giving them is normal (for example it could give you misconceptions of societal norms and understanding of other people.)
• Ways to heal: Try to find new people to surround yourself with who notice you and will be present in your life. Another way to heal is by Going to therapy or opening up about your past to people around you that you trust. 

 

8.  Unhealthy misconduct of drugs and/or alcohol

• How it affects:Being under the influence is a major contributor towards bad mental health and committing things that may be harmful towards yourself or others in your environment which can contribute to things like breaking laws. High amounts of misuse of drugs/alcohol could damage your health because of all the harmful ingredients your body cannot handle, eventually it could easily mentally damage you too. Specifically, large amounts of alcohol consumption will affect your teeth, heart, brain, lungs, liver and much more.
• Becoming sober:There are multiple ways for people to become sober. One way of quitting drugs and alcohol is by finding sobriety programs to go to. Another way is by going to therapy and talking to a therapist about your addictions. It’s not easy to quit but take your time, make sure to do your best, maybe track your progress!

 

Now that we have gone through some initial and common causes that could lead you to a bad physiological state, we will also try to summarize a few different mental disorders so you can see what these causes can become and why they really are such a big problem.

 

 1 —- ED (eating disorder) :

• There are actually many different types of eating disorders, but in general it is a mental health condition in which you struggle to have a healthy bond with food. This can be things like binge eating, this is one of the types of ED called binge eating disorder. Another type of eating disorder is called bulimia nervosa, this is similar to binge eating disorder however, after binge eating the person tries to get rid of the food/weight; sometimes in unhealthy ways like throwing up all the food. The last ED we will explain for now is Anorexia nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is when you have trouble with eating or how much you restrict yourself to food due to a harsh fear of gaining weight.
• This can be very unhealthy because it may lead you to have troubles with your digestive systems or amounts of energy since you may not have enough nutrients to do every day activities. You may also develop an unhealthy relationship with your body, sometimes so much you may develop BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder).

 

 2 —- PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder):

• PTSD can develop after experiencing or seeing a traumatic incident where they are put under extreme physiological stress. Individuals who have PTSD may perceive to be in that traumatic situation once again along with that immense psychological horror. PTSD can be triggered by certain images or situations and can escalate quickly.
•  Since PTSD is something that affects you in such a harsh phycological way, it can take years to heal from, sometimes you may never be able to quite completely recover from it fully.

 

 3 —- Schizophrenia:

• Schizophrenia is commonly seen as one of the most difficult disorders to live with. It affects how people may see the world around them, emotions, how they think and their behaviour. Oftentimes people with schizophrenia are described to be “out of touch with reality” given that hallucinations can unfortunately be very common with schizophrenia. They may experience delusions, hear things or see things that simply did not happen or are not true, this may lead to trust issues, a distorted image of reality, impulses, disorganization and much more.
• For several reasons we just explained, living with schizophrenia is very difficult, most of the time people with schizophrenia are very firm with their beliefs and really are unable to tell what is real or a hallucination. In many scenarios, because of how firm their belief in what they see is true, many people live undiagnosed, and when they do get diagnosed, they mostly have to live with treatment for all their lives.

 

 4 —- Social Anxiety:

• Social anxiety is when you easily get anxiety in social situations. This can be in almost any social setting but sometimes especially severe in a particular social setting. Social anxiety is commonly the fear of being criticized, the feeling you are always being watched and judged by people. This may cause you to have nausea, feel unwell, tremble,or have a quick heart pulse when in certain social situations.
• People with social anxiety might have problems socializing with peers, going out in public spaces, low self esteem/confidence and sometimes panic attacks.

 

 5 —- Depression :

• Depression is unfortunately very common in our current times in all different age groups, even the younger generation. It is described as a very persistent feeling of sorrow. People with depression tend to easily lose their hobbies/ interest, be easily burnt out and, in general, have difficulty keeping up with everyday activities, even things like simply getting out of bed.
• Depression is very bad for you due to many different reasons but for one, you may not be able to keep in touch with your environment, people around you and yourself. Depression is linked to many other mental disorders as well. Trouble with hygiene is also common, not just in yourself but in your environment too. A dirty environment will most likely also just end up hurting your health more.

 

 6 —- ASPD (Antisocial personality disorder):

• People with antisocial personality disorder are normally distinguished by lack of empathy, being manipulative or deceitful, impulsive behavior and disregard for rules/laws. They normally tend to shift blame on others then on themselves, have a hard time with long lasting relationships and lack guilt or regret when in the wrong. This does not mean someone with ASPD is unable to care for others or completely have no empathy, it is normally just more difficult. 
• ASPD can be troubling since you may struggle more with building bonds and relationships with other people or controlling your anger. You are also more prone to breaking laws/rules without taking responsibility if you are to have Antisocial personality disorder.

 

 7 —- BPD (Borderline personality disorder):

• Borderline personality disorder is a mental disorder where someone has an extremely intense sense of emotions, so much so that they have difficulty managing to control their emotions. Because of such severe emotions, BPD could likely contribute to many other mental disorders as well. People with borderline personality disorder may have difficulty understanding themselves or others because of their constant intense emotions, they may also struggle with decisive decision making and impulsive behaviour. It is also common to sometimes be panicked or frightened by a thought of being abandoned by people.
• Like mentioned above, with BPD it is difficult to build your identity of who you are and your relationship with others. You may have difficulty with deciding what you want, how to control impulses and a fear of abandonment.

 

We researched and described all these initial causes and mental illnesses/disorders so we could possibly better explain our topic so you could understand how important this is and how much it really affects people's daily lives. We wanted to show a bit more on how and why mental health may affect your actions to show how closely our physical and mental health really is related. 

 

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What Are The “Numbers” In Mental Health?

In the past, present of course the coming future, our general health has always been relevant, in this area of our research we will explain a bit more on how human mental/physical health has been in different places and times. Aside from this introduction we will go straight to explaining! 

 

We will start looking into depression, this is something we talked about earlier in our presentation too but now let’s look into the amounts of diagnosed people in the past and present.We will be looking at the numbers of people officially diagnosed in depression in the last ten years(2015-2025):

 

2015: In 2015 6.7% of adults 18+ (16.1 million adults) have had at least one major depressive episode in the U.S.

 

2016: In 2016 12.8 adolescents aged 12-17 (3.1 million adolescents)and 10.9 percent of young adults 18-25 (3.7 million)Have had a major depressive episode(U.S).

 

2017: In 2017 there were roughly 25.8 million cases of depression worldwide.

 

2018: In 2018 the percentage of U.S adults with depression increased from 8.7 to 10.6 percent.

 

2019: In 2019 around 280 million people were living with depression including 23 million children and adolescents. 

 

2020: In 2020 an estimated number of 21 million adults living in America had at least one major depressive episode.

 

2021: In 2021 around 14.1 million U.S adults aged at least 18 years or older have had at least one major depressive episode. 

 

2022: In 2022 it was estimated that around 5% of adults globally suffered from depression(280 million people)

 

2023: In 2023 there was estimated to be approximately 280 million people worldwide that had depression.

 

2024: In 2024 around 264 million people worldwide were suffering with depression.

2025: N/A

 

We were unable to find both worldwide and U.S accounts of depression for every year but we were able to find one or the other at least.

 

Now that we have our data for depression,we will now be looking into the amount of suicide cases in the past ten years and compare the data.For  the comparison,on the years where we were only able to find the U.S accounts for depression,we will be comparing the U.S accounts for suicide so that they don't have a big difference.

 

2015:In 2015 there were 788,000 cases of suicide globally and 44,193 cases of suicide in the U.S.

 

2016:In 2016 there were 44,965 cases of suicide in the U.S and 793,000 people globally. 

 

2017:In the U.S there were 47,173 cases of suicide and around 717,000 people globally. 

 

2018: In 2018 approximately 700,000 global cases of suicide with a global rate of around 10.5 and 48,344 cases in the U.S. 

 

2019:In 2019 there was estimated to be around 700,000 cases of suicide globally with a global suicide rate of 9.0 and 47,511 cases in the U.S.

 

2020:In 2020 it was estimated that there were around 700,000 suicide cases globally and there were 45,979 cases in the U.S.

 

2021:In 2021 there were over 720,000 cases of suicide globally and 47,646 cases in the U.S.

 

2022: In 2022 it was estimated to be 800,000 cases of suicide globally and around 49,000 cases in the U.S

 

2023:N/A

 

2024:N/A

 

2025:N/A

Since The year 2022 was the year with the highest number of suicides in the past ten years we will display charts that will give more detailed information about suicides in 2022 specifically.

 

This barline is showing the suicide rates per gender and we can see that Males was approximately 4 times higher than the rate among females. 

 

 

 

This barline is displaying the suicide rates per age group and it shows that people that are over the age of 85 have the highest suicide rate and people that are 10-14 years old have the lowest suicide rate.

 

 

 

This chart is showing the percentage of the most common methods used in suicide.It is showing that the use of a firearm is the most common method with a percentage of 54.64% of suicides performed by a firearm.

 

 

The reasons for such a rise in 2022 is unknown, it most likely could be in relation to the corona virus outbreak back in 2019. By 2022, the virus began to die down much more, however it still affected people's lives, due to the unfortunate numbers of deaths caused by the virus, it may have related to grief, it more likely related to going back into old habits though. Many people would’ve probably had to lose or begin more habits, change their lifestyle completely and may have developed other mental issues over the prolonged lockdown.

 

 

DATA ANALYSIS 

We will be doing our data analysis based off of the main 4 types of data analysis. Our project is theoretical so it will be based on our research. We will also make a small chart with the most important key words and there meanings 

1.

Descriptive analysis (what happened):

Bad mental health will affect you physically in many different ways in practically every body part.

Diagnostic analysis (why did it happen):

When you are in a bad mental state, it may lead you to make bad choices that then affect your physical body

Predictive analysis (what is likely to happen):

Your health can deteriorate very quickly, it’s easy to fall deeper into a bad mental state and earn bad habits

Prescriptive analysis (best course of action):

If available try therapy, find people to open up to, take check ups, have a positive mindset, take care of yourself. Be open minded and help yourself and others.

 

2.

 

^CONCLUSION

So now we will just kind of summarize the answer to our questions as simply put as possible. For starters, our first question was about how our head is physically affected by our mental health. It is a bit difficult to quickly explain since there are so many parts but the main issue would be your brain since it directly affects every part of your body and is normally referred to as the center of your body. The brain can be affected both directly and indirectly, directly due to how your brain is where your emotions and thinking regulates, indirectly for how your actions may affect your brain. For our second question, the middle body is a lot more mixed since it is where several of your vital organs are located but the key body parts to be aware of are your lungs, heart and parts of your spine. Those 3 parts very heavily connect through your entire body so they are vital to take note of, they are also mostly affected by things like drugs or alcohol, especially the lungs, heart and stomach. Most of these parts are affected indirectly. For question 3 which was the shortest question, like we mentioned earlier in our presentation, it doesn’t have as many exactly extremely vital organs but is nevertheless important. Your lower body is generally just affected indirectly. Our 4th question which had focused on the causes of mental issues and what they are is our longest section. Most of the causes are due to your living space, the people you surround yourself with, what you consume, and your confidence. The best way to heal is to take care of yourself or find people who are able to support you. Many mental illnesses/disorders can be very severe and will affect you practically daily, they can affect how you feel, see, act, and even sometimes cause hallucinations. For our last question, we just went through numbers of  depression and suicide over the last few years, worldwide and in the U.S. It’s difficult to come up with an exact conclusion since we were unable to find both worldwide and U.S rates for every single year, however it is a very important topic and the fact that the numbers are in the millions is devastating. Even so, the amounts we got most likely are not exact because many people are undiagnosed and some cases of suicide aren’t properly investigated, this is especially common in 3rd class countries where accessibility to healthcare or rights is very tight. This is the simplest way we think we could summarize and wrap up all our questions, thanks you for listening/reading!

Links for question 1:

[upper body]

• Geeksforgeeks 
• ClevelandClinic x1
• ScienceDirect 
• PremierNeurology 
• AllAboutVision 
• MedlinePlus 
• Britannica 
• AmericanBrainFoundation
• ChildrensHospitalOfPhiladelphia 
• TriHealth
• OrthoInfo
• TeachMeAnatomy
• Healthline
• Visible body
• iSmile
• MedicalNewsToday
• CleveLandClinic  x2

Links for question 2: 

[Middle body]

• ClevelandClinic  x3
• CleavelandClinic  x4
• Mind  x1
• NIH 
• PennMedicine
• NHS 
• DrinkAware
• EatingWell
• MayoClinic
• VeryWellHealth
• Dr.Sharma’sObesityNotes
• JhonsHopkins 
• MayoClinic 
• BetterHealthChannel 
• MountSinai
• FDA

Links for question 3:

[Lower body]

• ShepherdCenter
• NHSinform
• MyHealthAlberta
• MyHealthAlberta 
• Cleveland clinic  x5

Links for question 4:

[causes and how to notice]

• Mind  x2
• RodgerWilliamsUniversity 
• PsychCentral 
• NiDirect 
• WorldHealthOrganization
• ClevelandClinic x6
• NIDDK
• ClevelandClinic x7
• JohnsHopkins
• NHS
• BetterHealthChannel
• NHS 
• WorldHealthOrganization
• NIH (National Institute Of Mental Health)
• MayoClinic
• ClevelandClinic  x8
• ClevelandClinic  x9

Links for question 5:

[numbers/charts/graphs]

• SAMHSA
• ScienceDirect
• PubMed
• World Health Organization 
• National Institute of Mental Health
• Rotary
• American Foundation for Suicide Preventation
• U.S centers for disease and prevention
• CNN

DATA ANALYSIS:

• CFblog

We would like to thank our teachers, parents, and all the sources we got out information from. Our teachers for guiding us and helping us think about our project, our parents of course for supporting us and helping us get our supplies, and our sources for all the knowledge and information we were able to receive from them. Of course we would also just like to thank the Calgary Youth Science Fair for this great opportunity.