New Delhi, June 26 -- ATLANTA - For a growing number of Americans, the decision to sit down across from a therapist has stopped feeling like a confession and started feeling like maintenance, something closer to a dental cleaning than a last resort. New federal data put a number on that shift this week. About one in seven adults, roughly 14 percent, told government surveyors they had received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in the past year, part of a steady climb in how many people are seeking care and how openly they say so.

The figures come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose National Center for Health Statistics released its latest accounting of how adults are treating their mental healt...