Adnan Abidi / Reuters

Patients sit inside their ward at a mental hospital in Kabul on November 11, 2012. The war in Afghanistan is creating a generation of people mentally damaged by their exposure to incessant conflict, a buildup of problems which could undermine the country's reconstruction and development efforts.

Reuters reports — On a low bed in a quiet, all-female hospital ward, a depressed Afghan teenager huddles silently under blankets, her mother close by. In a nearby room are men suffering from schizophrenia, delusions of persecution and power, anxiety and panic disorders.

As Taliban regroup, victims battle for 'free' Afghanistan

Among them are some of the unseen victims of the war in Afghanistan: a generation of people mentally damaged by their exposure to incessant conflict.

Adnan Abidi / Reuters

Ghazia Sadid, 26, a patient suffering from depression, speaks during an interview with Reuters at a mental hospital in Kabul on November 14, 2012.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Ghazia Sadid, a 26-year-old mother, endured depression for years after a family member was killed in a bomb attack, and she fled her home in fear of more violence.

"I still hear the sounds of explosions. I still remember the fighting, but since I have come here my behavior has changed," she said, speaking at the Kabul Mental Health Hospital, a green-walled building on the outskirts of the city.

"I was totally lost and my life was over. After two years of treatment, now I love my children," she said. "I loved them then too, but in my imagination I had done something wrong." Read the full story.

When the war comes home: Watch a video about U.S. soldiers' struggles with PTSD and other mental issues after returning from Afghanistan

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Adnan Abidi / Reuters

A patient scribbles on his hand as he sits inside his ward at a mental hospital in Kabul on November 11, 2012.

Adnan Abidi / Reuters

Patients sit inside their ward at a mental hospital in Kabul on November 11, 2012.

Mast Irham / EPA

An Indonesian mentally ill patient, Ujang, 45, takes a bath at a small mental rehabilitation center run by the Jamrud Biru foundation in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, Oct. 10.

Wednesday is the World Health Organization's (WHO) 20th World Mental Health day, which seeks to bring attention to mental illness. The focus this year is 'Depression: A Global Crisis.' According to a WHO press release:

“We have some highly effective treatments for depression. Unfortunately, fewer than half of the people who have depression receive the care they need. In fact in many countries this is less than 10%,” says Dr Shekhar Saxena, Director of the Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse. “This is why WHO is supporting countries in fighting stigma as a key activity to increasing access to treatment.” Continue reading.

Around 19 million mentally ill people live in Indonesia, and most of them have no access to proper medical treatment, the health ministry reported. Approximately 15,000 mentally ill people are physically constrained and are called "pasung," roughly meaning "shackled," according to Agence France Presse:

Between rice fields and coconut trees on Indonesia's "paradise" island of Bali, a man lies chained by the ankles to a rotting wooden bed in a garden, staring at roosters tottering by.

I Ketut Lingga, 54, has schizophrenia and is one of more than 15,000 Indonesians with a mental illness who are either chained, caged or placed in primitive stocks, according to health ministry data. Continue reading.

Mast Irham / EPA

Indonesian mentally ill patients, Fadil, left, and Budi sit on the floor of a small mental rehabilitation center run by the Jamrud Biru foundation in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, Oct. 10.

Mast Irham / EPA

An Indonesian mentally ill patient, Acong, 35, sits on a broken sofa outside of a small mental rehabilitation center run by the Jamrud Biru foundation in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, Oct. 10.

Mast Irham / EPA

An Indonesian mentally ill patient, Rahmat, covers his face as he looks out of a broken window of a small mental rehabilitation center run by the Jamrud Biru foundation in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, Oct. 10.

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• Alzheimer's and dementia patients enroll in ping pong program

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Photographer Lucy Nicholson visited a program for people with Alzheimer's and dementia at the Arthur Gilbert table tennis center in Los Angeles.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Holocaust survivor Betty Stein, 92, is helped by coach Irina Jestkova as she plays ping pong at a program for people with Alzheimer's and dementia at the Arthur Gilbert table tennis center in Los Angeles, California, on June 15.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Freyda Dvorak, 87, takes a break while playing ping pong at the Arthur Gilbert table tennis center.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Betty Stein plays ping pong.

Reuters reports:

Founder Mikhail Zaretsksky says the sport does not cure, or even slow down the disease, but helps the 100 participants by raising their heart rate and the blood flow to their brains, and exercising them mentally as well as physically. He says it helps their depression, improves their balance, and makes them more alert.  

Read more about the program in The Los Angeles Times.

Dave Martin / AP

Demonstrators representing the group People First gather on the steps of the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday, March 22, 2011. The group held a rally calling for the closure of the the W.D. Partlow Developmental Center in Tuscaloosa, a state residential facility for people with intellectual disabilities.

Here's a story about the potential closure of this facility.