Depression In Women Research Paper

Depression is the most common mental health disorder; it affects over 17 million American adults each year. Depression is a mood disorder characterized by at least four symptoms such as changes in sleep, appetite, weight, and psychomotor activity; decreased energy, feelings of worthlessness or guilt; difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions; or recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation, thoughts or attempts. “Women are approximately two times more likely than men to suffer from major depression” (Research Agenda for Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors in Women’s Health, 1996) and it has been called the most significant mental health risk for women. Women are more likely to suffer from depression during marriage

In early American history, individuals with mental illnesses have been neglected and suffered inhuman treatments. Some were beaten, lobotomized, sterilized, restrained, in addition to other kinds of abuse. Mental illness was thought to be the cause of supernatural dreadful curse from the Gods or a demonic possession. Trepanning (the opening of the skull) is the earliest known treatment for individuals with mental illness. This practice was believed to release evil spirits (Kemp, 2007). Laws were passed giving power to take custody over the mentally ill including selling their possessions and properties and be imprisoned (Kofman, 2012). The first psychiatric hospital in the U.S. was the Pennsylvania Hospital where mentally ill patients were left in cold basements because they were considered not affected by cold or hot environments and restraint with iron shackles. They were put on display like zoo animals to the public for sell by the doctors (Kofmen, 2012). These individuals were punished and isolated and kept far out of the eyes of society, hidden as if they did not exist. They were either maintained by living with their families and considered a source of embarrassment or institutionalized

Depression is a feeling of severe despondency and dejection according to the google dictionary. It first appeared in Mesopotamia, where they believed that depression was a demonic possession and often used priest to attend to patients with depression. The original word for depression was melancholia and it was seen as a mental or spiritual illness rather than a physical one. With the help of great psychologists and psychiatrists such as Emil Kraepelin, Kurt Schneider, and Sigmund Freud, the science and research of depression was able to advance over time. In terms of African American women, they have higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to White American women. This could be due to many problems such as poverty, resources, emotional resilience, and social support.

When staff did attempt to cure the patients, they followed the practices typical of the time period—purging and bloodletting, the most common. Other treatments included dousing the patient in either hot or ice-cold water to shock their minds back into a normal state. The belief that patients needed to choose rationality over insanity led to techniques aiming to intimidate (Butcher 37). Blistering, physical restraints, threats, and straitjackets were employed to achieve this end. Powerful drugs were also administered, for example, to a hysterical patient in order to exhaust them (Butcher 37, Alexander 109). Around the mid-1700s, the Dutch Dr. Boerhaave invented the “gyrating chair” that became a popular tool in Europe and the United States. This instrument was intended to shake up the blood and tissues of the body to restore equilibrium, but instead resulted in rendering the patient unconscious without any recorded successes (Alexander 109).

Women are diagnosed with depression twice as much as men. Often stereotyped as being more emotional than men, women are thus more vulnerable to depression. Emotions are taught and influenced and develop early on in life. The definition of depression varies with common factors in all being consist of time, severity of the emotion being felt/expressed along with consistency. A valid definition of depression would be: a feeling of hopelessness and/or sadness or little self worth. This is shown with a lack of interest in everyday activities and/or relationships and is consistent for several or more weeks. There have also been studies done of seasonal depression in certain areas.

I find it really interesting how much more developed we are now as compared to one-hundred years ago on treating mental illness. How scary it must have been back then to have a mental illness. For example, the lobotomy. The thought of having an ice pick put through your eye and into your brain. Or even a trephination, having a stone instrument cut into a section of the skull. It appeared to me that some of the even earlier treatments were pretty inhumane. Such as hydro therapy to stimulate the patient. Wrapping the patient in wet packs, putting them in hot baths or using heat lamps to stimulate them. Then there was the insulin therapy. Which causes them to go into a coma to experience a convulsion reaction. All of these things must have been

The article that I read was called “Depression, and Women.” This article by Doctor Terri Apter describes the connection between women and depression. Doctor Apter goes over certain things pertaining to the topic that she discovered when she was researching it. Apter even spoke about the writer Allison Pearson and her novel about a character with depression. Later on in the article, Apter compared one of the lines in the book to the symptoms of depression. Those symptoms were lack of energy and a feeling of emptiness. She also used statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health, or the NIMH, to back up her statement, which was that women are more likely to experience depression within their lives. Considering the article is about depression,

Is depression affected by gender? Depression is a medical condition that has an emotional impact on the brain. However, depression can influence a person’s reasoning, action, and their emotional state. Also, depression can interfere with a person personal life or career, and it can cause an individual unhappiness and to become less engaged participating in activities that they previously desired. Nevertheless, depression affects both men and women, but it is intriguing to determine if women are susceptible to depression than men.

During World War Two, a handful of experiments were conducted on the prisoners of the concentration camps by German physicians. They were painful, and often deadly. Concentration camp prisoners were experimented on without their consent.

Depression affects men and women of all shapes and sizes. The difference only comes in the degree it affects an individual. As much as it is more common in women, it is easier for women to deal with it than men. I chose this topic in order to show and explain that depression is not a weakness, and men should not shy away from dealing with it. Instead, seek help in the early stages. I have learned the importance of sensitizing the society to embrace depression in men and help them feel more comfortable coming out of

The unemployment rate caused by the Depression led to "self-blame and self-doubt" between men and women ("Dust Bowl.."). Emotionally, women felt like they had to be there for the men and step up to help them. Men were hit harder psychologically than women were because they had higher expectations of providing for the family. For the men, "it was humiliating to have to ask for assistance" from the women ("Dust Bowl.."). Some people argued that women should not be given jobs when many men were unemployed, even thought the percentage of women working increased during the Depression. Women were treated like second class citizens compared to everyone else. From living through the Depression, some people developed habits of "careful saving and frugality,

The site goes on to list some of the reasons that women have depression “are genes, brain chemistry and changing hormones, postpartum depression, and stress” (n.d.). The National Institute of Mental Health recognizes that there is a genetic link between women and depression and that there is other factors such as stress from daily life and depression that can come from giving birth. There is different types of depression and it can come in different stages of life. According to the National Institute of Mental Health “More women than men get depression” (n.d.). A woman that is on medication for depression should keep in contact with her doctor, and consult with them if they are trying to get pregnant, or if they are already pregnant. The National Institute of Mental Health has a comprehensive list of phone numbers and websites to visit in order to start the journey of receiving help for depression. The National Institute of Mental Health also lists different therapies and medications that can help treat women who have depression. The medicine for depression can have side-effects, so keeping in contact with the doctor is essential. The National Institute of Mental Health also has a section on how you can help a loved one whom you believe to suffer from depression. The article also goes on to state how one can help themselves when they recognize that they suffer from depression,

There were many proposed explanations regarding gender differences in depression. In the nineteenth century, depression in women were viewed usually either “inevitable consequences of women’s inferior anatomy or as the consequences of shirking the ‘natural’ feminine role” (qtd in Beck). This could be seen in the case of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her “manly” activity. It is easy to assume the nineteenth-century thoughts of depression and emotional health as uninformed and irrelevant, yet these thoughts still affect our mindset today. Such example is how the view of the influence of women’s biological changes in their reproductive organs on depression could be still seen

Depression have become a major problem in our society today. People who haven’t experience depression will not understand how it feel and what it can do to a person. Many people also doesn’t understand what depression is, or how it can related to suicidal ideation. In fact, studies have documented that the majority of young suicide victims had depression at the time of death and most suicide survivors were diagnosed with symptoms of clinical depression at the time of their attempt (Mojs, Biederman, Głowacka, Strzelecki, Ziemska, Samborski 2015). It can affect anyone, from young adolescents to college students to the elderly people. There are many reasons that can make someone have major depression. Such as financial problems, family problems, social problems, school, work, etc. These stressors in our daily life can cause anxiety which can increase our stress level significantly, which then can lead to depression. A research said that anxiety disorder have a high comorbidity with depression and that anxiety occur prior to the onset of depressive disorders in many individuals (Batterham, Christensen, Calear 2013). People who experience depression must find way to cope with depression and know how to get help in order to prevent suicidal ideation. The people surroundings, friends and family, must also find ways to recognize the symptoms of depression, and show understandings in order to help those suffering. This research project will help people understand more about

More over the second hypothesis was that the mean difference in depression for men differed from the mean difference in depression for women because according to Silverstein et al. (2013), women were 33% more likely than men to have pure depression and over 50% more likely to have somatic depression. Finally, the third and last hypothesis was that the mean difference in self-esteem for men differed from the mean difference in self-esteem for women because according to Sprecher, Brooks, and Avogo, (2013), in a study among Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, and Asians, men had higher self-esteem than women across all races with the exception of black females who’s self-esteem did not significantly differ from black men.