Why do you thing depression and anxiety are more prevalent in women?

Question

I am part of an online peer support group for people with anxiety and depression. We have about 150 members with only about 10 who are male. It is known statistically that women suffer from depression and anxiety at a much higher percentage than men.

Why do you think more women suffer these disorders than men?

Are the statistics skewed because more men self-medicate?

Has feminism affected these statistics?

Does feminism address this societal problem in any way?

Answer 1

I don't. I have seen a significant amount of anxiety and depression in both men and women. Like another said, relationship issues, work, economics; it affects us all.

Answer 2

Well a few things...

The numbers for Depression is way way over what it should be.  Everyone has ups and downs...that arnt necessary depression.  Doc's are very quick to hand out "happy" pills and declare the person depressed.  For example friend of mine was getting a divorce..went to the doctor for her back.  Came home with Prozac.     Did she need it? not likely. She was going though a hard time but wasn't clinically depressed.  Yet situations like hers are included in those numbers,  

Men are less likely to go to the doctor for...Anything...compared to the majority of women.  Think a lot of men hide it until it passes or it is to late.  Is it not a fact that more men kill themselves then women...

As to feminism, if you look at the historical fact that America had a huge problem with house wifes addicted to Opium.  Way way way before feminism, and women voting, working out of home and such...

I'd doubt that depression has increased that much, course we also understand it more.  

Answer 3

Women have wider and more often active roles in society as parents, wives, social & emotional careers, and friendships with others....... Plays a large role on stress.

Answer 4

men just hide it better

Answer 5

I am not sure that is true.  I do think a lot of men self-medicate.  It is much less socially acceptable for a man to talk about any mental disorder than it is for a woman.  Finally, women tend to internalize there problems more.  I have found that if my male friends seem depressed, they attribute it to an outside cause. (work, girlfriend, lack of accomplishment)  My female friends and girlfriends tend to attribute it to some sort of psychological problem with themselves.  That probably accounts for the discrepancy.

Answer 6

because we have to put up with men!

Answer 7

I think that women are far more mature and emotional than men. We tend to make decisions with a lot of emotion, and thoughts. Almost everything that we do has to do with emotion. And when we get stressed, we get far more depressed than men. Remember- women think far differently than men do. I don't believe that feminism has affected this because I think this is common.

Answer 8

I don't see how feminism is to blame.  I'd say a lot of men will not seek out help out of fear of their masculinity.  Women do get more depressed and anxious, particularly with today's fast paced lifestyle.  But I think that if men were honest on your online group then there would be more than 10 out of 150 males that required support.

Answer 9

I think that it is because we are the caregivers.  We spend our lives taking care of others through raising kids, supporting spouses, then taking care of elder parents and we rarely take a breather to take care of the one person in our lives that we are neglecting, ourselves.  All that is stressful but we are programed to deal with it and go on.  That stress builds up and we suffer emotionally.  Look at everything our mothers and grandmothers have done their entire lives. We are right there with them. However we have the added stress of having to cope in a two income family system.  Mothers used to stay at home and now we work, go to school, take care of the house, the kids, the bills and everything else.  I think that it is our whole way of life.  We are programed to take care of everyone but ourselves until it is too late.

That is just my theory.  

Answer 10

I really don't think that it's because men self medicate...

There are many factors for this, women are generally more sensible and tend to be obsessed with things easier than average men.

Also, stuff like testosterone makes males to be a bit more emotionally stable. (this may either cause males to not notice that they are depressed or not feel that bad and therefore not report themselves)

I don't think feminism has anything to do it, this is not men's faults.

And anyway, if you check around in more than in that group, there are many many depressed men and women.

And i think those numbers will raise.

EDIT- I myself was thinking about visiting a psychiatrist soon...but things are way better now...at least for now...

Answer 11

It's partly that women tend to seek help more often than men (who often do self-medicate or engage in self-destructive behaviour), so the prevalence is in large measure a product of women tending to seek medical attention more commonly.  (For all we know "true" rates me be the same, since all the stats are based on those who actually seek treatment).  So the epidemiology is inherently flawed.

Secondly there are neuroendocrine factors that there's really no consensus about which play a role.  Advanced imaging is attempting to figure out what sort of differences exist in the central raphe and other 5HT dominant centres.  But frankly we don't know "why."

And the prevalence is most likely the reluctance of many men to seek treatment lest it be perceived as a sign of "weakness."  So frankly, I don't pay much attention to the prevalence rate as it's flawed.

Feminism is the cause of most societal problems but, in the case of Major Depression Disorder, it's probably more on the basis of genetic substrate.

With the advent of novel therapies, it's likely that we'll see that the prevalence of males who seek treatment will rise as the stigma of psychiatric illness subsides.  But those studies will take years to come.

Answer 12

Women are way more emotional and into their feelings. We tend to over analyze almost everything and take it to an extreme. Men just "do it" lol like the Nike slogan.  

Answer 13

women are more emotional

women hold grudges

grudges causes stress

an in women stress causes depression

Answer 14

We are more keenly sensitive to the subtle minutia of everyday social life. We are observant, and sense the insides of others and what is really going on in a situation, we detect undercurrents men often overlook, we are interested in the psychologies of others, in morals and the spiritual...At least I am and this leaves me depressed with the people I come across