Stereotypes Associated With Depression In Women

Closely related to notions of masculinity is mental health. As the Canadian Mental Health Association [CMHA] (2018) and CMHF (2018) report, beliefs about masculinity can discourage men’s interest in health issues, and stigma, fears of emasculation, vulnerability, and powerlessness in particular can dissuade interest in mental health. For example, many men have lower awareness of depression and anxiety symptoms or do not believe they are susceptible, and they often do not link issues or symptoms like anger and insomnia, to emotional distress (CMHA, 2018; State of Victoria, Department of Health 2015). Rather, men tend to employ maladaptive behaviours, like numbing, which can lead to self-destructive behaviours, such as violence

Hypermasculinity requires a man to be, frankly, emotionally constipated. He cannot show tears or sadness. Many young boys are told to stop crying and “man up”. By repressing natural expressions of emotion such as crying, men have withdrawn emotional states. Men being forced to repress their emotions and being raised into fearfulness of expressing these emotions, is dangerous. This emotional repression makes men more susceptible to depression and eventually suicide. Depression is commonly seen in the image of a highschool girl with no friends who is sad all the time. But that’s just not the case with most depressed people. Depression is less sadness and more emotional disconnect. This emotional disconnect of depression can be found in both men and women. Yet the same emotional disconnect of depression is something men are forced into feeling. The feeling of having to hide emotions or not being able to feel at all are signs of depression, but are the sort of traits society wants men to have- in order to Act Like A Man. When men do show emotion, it must be raw and powerful and dominating. It has to be a play of power against other men and especially a play to show power over women. They fight. And, in the most extreme case, they kill.

Men are less likely to seek help for depression because in countless societies, men are looked down upon for showing emotion. Untreated depression can then easily lead to suicidal thoughts and eventually suicidal behavior. Men throughout the world carry the burden of concealing their weaknesses from those around them for

Personality disorders have a sex prevalence rate and there has been some suggestion that those rates reflect gender bias. The bias concerns derived from the “conceptualization of personality disorders, the wording of diagnostic criteria, the application of diagnostic criteria, thresholds for diagnosis, clinical presentation, researching sampling, the self-awareness and openness of patients and the items included within self-report inventories” (Butcher, 2009, p. 356). Studies have failed to prove that there is significant gender bias in the DSM. However, research has showed there is gender bias within clinical judgments. For example, gender related items would be included within self-report inventories (Butcher, 2009). Clinicians tend to judge female patients as being mentally ill more readily than male patients, even when the symptoms are the same. Moreover, women are more likely to be cast as overly emotional, have a need for mood-altering medication and require ongoing monitoring/treatment (Zur and Nordmarken, 2010).

Bipolar disorder is much less common than the other types of depression. To help with diagnosis, doctors look for signs and symptoms of depression and assess their severity, duration, and effects on everyday life. (http://www.prozac.com/DiseaseInformation/TypesOfDepression.jsp) The Way Men Think About Themselves The way that men think about themselves can be quite unhelpful. Compared with women, they tend to be far more concerned with being competitive, powerful and successful.  Most men don’t like to admit that they feel fragile or vulnerable, and so are less likely to talk about their feelings with their friends, loved ones or their doctors.  This may be the reason that they often don’t ask for help when they become depressed. Men tend to feel that they should rely only on themselves and that it is somehow weak to have to depend on someone else, even for a short time. This traditional view of how men should be always tough and self-reliant. Some men find that owning up to their depression actually results in their partner rejecting them because of this. Even professionals sometimes share this view, and may not diagnose depression in men when they should. Instead of talking about how they feel, men may try to make themselves feel better by using alcohol or drugs. This will usually make things worse in the long run. Their work will suffer and alcohol often leads to

Men and women have different levels of risks of getting mental illnesses such as alcohol dependency. This is “more than twice as high in men than women. In developed countries, approximately 1 in 5 men and 1 in 12 women develop alcohol dependence during their lives” WHO 2015. This clearly shows that men and women have different risks when it comes to health and illness. Men are also twice as likely to have personality disorders, but women are more likely to have anxiety and depression than men are. Women have more accounts of sexual harassment and rape and this has a knock on effect to the amount of people with depression.

Stereotypes are a major problem because people may hear the stereotypes of what a depressed person is like and assume they are not depressed because their feelings do not go by the stereotypes they heard. The stereotype that happy people cannot be depressed is all wrong on so many levels. Sometimes showing happiness and using humor is a defense mechanism, and the people who seem happy are really suffering in silence. Some also believe that depression is “dictated by life circumstances” when actually, it can be triggered by inherited genes and traits, brain chemistry, and even hormonal imbalances(Clifton). One should talk to their doctor if they think hormones could be the cause of their depression. Talking about depression with a depressed person is commonly believed to be uncomfortable or embarrassing for the person, and while sometimes this may be the case, it actually may send some relief to the person with depression. The National Institute of Mental Health says “there’s a difference between experiencing sadness for a short period of time and one’s daily life becoming afflicted by the symptoms of [depression] for several months or years”(Clifton) Despite what society says, people with depression are not mentally weak, lazy, or inferior; they may actually be some of the strongest people around having to fight a daily battle in their minds that no one else knows about. The smartest, most hard-working and supportive people

However, with changes in society it has come to describe those who suffer from pervasive lowering of mood preventing them from living a normal life. Conditions range from person to person. It may vary from mild, brief occasional dips in a person's mood to a severe lifelong persistence in extensive depressive episodes characterizing a person with intense feelings of self-worthlessness. Overall depression is a very common mental health disorder, however it is still highly misunderstood. This disorder is seen to be “one of the greatest, if not the greatest disease burden of the twenty first century”. (Mulholland.1) As this disorder brings distress to millions of households across the nation, it is frequently misdiagnosed or simply not seen as an issue of concern at all. Leading to “a great deal of suffering and a substantial number of deaths”. (Mulholland.1) Alas, the condition sadly evokes a lot of stigma. The lack of personal experience and knowledge residing with most people causes feelings of superiority in those who the condition does not affect. This causes tears in the social fabric and worsens things for those that do have

society and stimulus” (Gilman) Where as in today’s society is more knowledgeable and is actively looking for solutions to the detection and assistance of getting needed help to the affected while eliminating isolation treatment of the woman experiencing the illness. Current society also does not shame a woman dealing with this illness is not a minority “Depression impairs approximately 7.5 million parents in the United States each year”.(Smith) Which is a huge part of the American population. Another reason of increased treatment is due to studies have shown “If untreated, depression can persist for years [10, 11]. Parental depression is associated with negative child health impacts extending into adulthood [9, 12]”.(Smith)

The connection between gender and psychological disorders seems to be hard to ignore and yet today we still lack the distinct research and treatment necessary to resolve the epidemic of psychological disorders in women. Women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety disorders than men, a study showed 10% of mothers obtain a mental health problem during motherhood while only 6% of fathers experience these issues (“Mental Health Statistics: Men and Women.") and women predominate over men in rates of major depression (Astbury, Cabral). The gap in between men and women experiencing these mental health problems seems to be clear but we have to ask ourselves, why? We often associate mental health issues with individual

Nolan-Hoekesma(2004) explains why females are twice more likely to become depressed than men (Jamison). The major component in her argument is stress. She explains how females suffer from traumatic life experiences and describes two major issues that aid in there stress; sexual assault during childhood and women tending to have a lower social status than men. By experiencing sexual assault during childhood years, the brain becomes more vulnerable through the years until it fully develops. Also, by having a lower social status than men, women do not get as big of a voice when decision making. Females have a tendency to over think and complicate situations by ruminating the problem. Men, on the other hand, fail to ruminate the problems they face making the situation less stressful for themselves while trying to find a solution. Not only do personal and social relationships impact depression but the environment itself. A variety of natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis are all traumatic experiences that contribute a string of mournful events to a person who already may be

8. Jamison explains in her book, “Unquiet Mind” that women are more likely to be in line with society's stigmatizing ideas of depression, while manic states are more likely to be associated with men. Meanwhile, with manic-depressive illness, it “occurs equally often in women and men… mania ends up affecting a large number of women” (Jamison 123). Mental illness, especially depression, is stereotyped because people think of it as a state of sadness. She states that since women show more emotions of sensitivity, dependent on others, and tiresome that women are more likely to be grouped with depression (Jamison 122).

Individuals who suffer with unipolar depression, which is the ordinary template of mood disorders, experience only the depression side of the disorder. Women are twice as probable to encounter unipolar depression then men. Depression symptoms stretch across five features of human functioning such as

One of the serious problems that can happen mentally in a woman’s mind is developing low self esteem and ultimately depression. With the media showing pictures and videos of what they perceive as the

Extreme stereotyping of gender is harmful and toxic. They don’t allow people to fully express themselves and their emotions. “A real man does not cry.”, this statement is