It’s important that the media are able to present the most accurate information about mental illness to the community. Below is a summary of brief facts about mental illness that media professionals can use within a story or use to provide context for a story.

Please also visit our Story sources and contacts page for organisations which can provide further detailed information and statistics about specific mental illnesses. 

• In each year, approximately one in every five Australians will experience a mental illness.
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• Mental illnesses are the third leading cause of disability burden in Australia, accounting for an estimated 27% of the total years lost due to disability.
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• About 4% of people will experience a major depressive episode in a 12-month period, with 5% of women and 3% of men affected.
• Approximately 14 % of Australians will be affected by an anxiety disorder in any 12-month period.
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• About 3% of Australians are affected by psychotic illness; such as schizophrenia, where there is a loss of contact with reality during episodes of illness.
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• Approximately 2% of Australians will experience some type of eating disorder in their life, with women 9 times more likely than men.
• About 5% of Australians will experience substance abuse disorders in any 12-month period, with men more than twice as likely as women to have substance abuse disorders.
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• Prevalence of mental illness decreases with age, with prevalence greatest among 18-24 year olds.
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• Women are more likely than men to seek help for anxiety disorders (18% compared with 11%) and mood disorders (7.1% compared with 5.3%).
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• A national survey showed that 35% of people with a mental disorder had used a health service and 29% consulted a GP within the 12 months before the survey.
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• Women are more likely than men to use services for mental health problems.
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• Limited research suggests that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience mental disorders at least as often as other Australians.
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• In Australia, the prevalence of mental or behavioural disorders among people born overseas is similar to those born in Australia.
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• Many violent people have no history of mental disorder and most people with mental illness (90%) have no history of violence.

- See more at: http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/reporting-mental-illness/facts-and-stats#sthash.poKch8Ti.dpuf

Psychopathy is commonly defined as a personality disorder characterized partly by antisocial behavior, a diminished capacity forremorse, and poor behavioral controls.[6][13][14][15] Psychopathic traits are assessed using various measurement tools, including Canadian researcher Robert D. Hare's Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R).[16] "Psychopathy" is not the official title of any diagnosis in the DSM or ICD.[17][18]

American psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley's work[citation needed] on psychopathy formed the basis of the diagnostic criteria for ASPD, and the DSM has stated that ASPD has also been referred to as psychopathy.[2][6] However, critics have argued that ASPD is not synonymous with psychopathy as the diagnostic criteria are not exactly the same, since criteria relating to personality traits are emphasized relatively less in the former. These differences exist in part because it was believed that such traits were difficult to measure reliably and it was "easier to agree on the behaviors that typify a disorder than on the reasons why they occur"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder

I have chosen these two articles that given insight into mental disorders. One could argue that I stepped over the mark by associating political shenanigans with mental illness and they could be right. One thing though: the present political shenanigans of the Abbott regime are beyond mental deficiency. They are pure lunacy — from lies that are obviously lies that they try to make us swallow whole like snake oil, to raising the state of fear while asking us to remain calm. This is typical of loony tunes characters in comics. Not befitting of civilisation.