Use Of Emotional Medication For The High Depression Rates Among Women

Although Barry and Tannen have taken different approaches to examine the differences between men and women, as Barry’s point was based on housework while Tannen’s discussion mainly focused on communication, it should be noted that both of them agreed on the opinion that men and women are quite different from each other, especially in terms of emotions and feeling. Barry and Tannen pointed out that women are more inclined to share their feelings and emotions while men are not. In Barry’s article, he has been quite specific about this point by saying that “some women (and here I am referring to my wife) can share as many as three days’ worth of feelings about an event that take eight seconds to actually happen. We men, on the other hand, are reluctant to share our feelings, in large part because we often don’t have

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8% of persons over the age of twelve reports being currently depressed, this includes 6% of the male population (2014). This literature also reports males aged forty to fifty-nine having higher rates of depression (7%), when compared to males sixty years or older (5%) (2014). In 2010 there were 63.3 million visits to primary care physicians, hospital outpatient units and emergency rooms attributed to mental health diagnosis (CDC, 2014). In the same year, there were 395,000 psychiatric inpatient discharges with major depressive disorder as the primary diagnosis. These individuals had an average stay of six and a half days (CDC, 2014). Inpatient and outpatient treatment is seemingly a revolving door. One article examines the growing number of people being diagnosed with depression, yet the declining number of people seeking outpatient care. This article reports 2.88 out of 100 people seek outpatient treatment for their depression (ScienceDaily, 2010). It is imperative for practitioners of group practice to understand that men and women experience depression differently and to then formulate treatment based on the individual’s unique needs (NIH, 2014).

According to the World Mental Health Survey Initiative (2011), woman in the United States are six times more likely than a man in China to have experienced a depressive episode. The report concluded that

The female population makes up the other half of the entire human race, how depression affects them should not be glazed over. He touches on the topic very briefly, and makes valid points but not enough to capture all of the knowledge. “And urban North American women, the most affluent demographic of the study, were the most likely to experience depression” (Junger, 20). While he does touch on the topic, this is one of the few quotes that focuses on women and depression in North America, not even regarding that this applies to women in most societies as well. Kastrup wrote an article called Cultural Aspects of Depression: “It is well documented that women run a greater risk in most cultures: overall, women have a 1.5-2 times greater risk of suffering from depression compared with men. In the Cross-National Collaborative Group, women in all countries had a higher prevalence with a female:male ratio varying from 1.6 in Lebanon to 3.1 in West Germany.” Again, Junger did include a brief mention of women, but narrowed it down to North American women, when it clearly expands to other

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.

Today, gender roles somewhat loosened compared from the past years, and cultural winds have somehow shifted back the idea of crying as a sign of manliness. Sharon Martin, a licensed psychotherapist in a private practice in San Jose, California, suggests that there are many advantages to having a good cry. “I encourage crying because it purges negative energy and allows for new, positive energy to fill us up. Sometimes people feel embarrassed or ashamed about crying, especially in public. Crying is normal and nothing to be ashamed of,” she told Medical Daily in an email (Borelli par 3). “Shedding a few tears does not only mentally cleanse us, it can cleanse our body too, she added (Borelli par 4).”

Women constantly have to consider if an emotion is too intense to express, or if they might be upsetting someone because they're not expressing enough. This means that women focus on how their emotions may affect others, but not how they affect themselves. Lacking this personal insight stunts emotional growth. One of the key parts of being an emotionally mature adult is being able to appropriately assess, express, and cope with a range of emotions. Women often aren’t taught how.

“Eleven percent of Americans aged 12 years and over, take antidepressant medication,” “antidepressants were the third most common prescription drug … in 2005 – 2008,” and from 1988 to 2008, the rate of antidepressant use in the US increased nearly 400% (Pratt).

Men and women are biologically similar in regards to the hormones and chemicals involved with depression. However socially, each gender encounters different social afflictions that can often lead them into depressive states. In this essay, we will explore the common struggles that each gender experiences and how these realities effect their contrasting developments of depression.

Women experience depression at twice the rate of men. Gender differences emerge first at puberty and occur mainly in the common mental disorders such as depression, anxiety among others. These disorders, in which women predominate, affect approximately 1 in 3 people. The frequency of major depression in adults is estimated to be 7 to 12 percent in men and 20 to 25 percent in women in a community and this constitutes a serious public health problem (NIMH, 2006). Several and variable factors in women contribute to depression, such as genetic, hormonal, developmental, reproductive, and other biological differences like premenstrual syndrome, childbirth, infertility and menopause. Factors associated to social issues may lead to depression

According to Table 4, there was significant relationship between the gender, marital status and education with self-medication; so that it was higher in the men than in the women; was higher in the single peoples than in the married peoples; and was higher in the educated peoples than in the other groups

Feminism remains a hot button issue within our society. Feminist theory and Evolutionary Psychology (EP) have long been at odds with each other, particularly on issues such as gender equality and rape. One argues from a social standpoint, and the other from a purely scientific understanding. Neither viewpoint is necessarily wrong, but it would be much better if EP and feminist theory could find common ground. Men and women do think and mate differently, as men and women have long had different goals. In today’s society, it is becoming far more acceptable for a woman to freely express her desires for either a long-term or a short-term mate and what mating habits she wants therein. It is also rapidly becoming less and

Throughout Udry article, he emphasizes the importance of a biosocial model. His model illustrates the integration of biological and social pressures that effect gender in society. He hypothesizes that, “the effect on women of their childhood gender socialization is constrained by the biological process that produces natural behavior dispositions” (Udry, p 444). This hypothesis assumes that, a fetus that is exposed to testosterone while in the mothers’ womb during the second trimester of the pregnancy will have an increased probability of masculine “typical” sex-dimorphic behaviors. In order to test this hypothesis Udry needed to conduct a research design that was previously constructed around a study by Goy. This previous study revolved around pregnant Rhesus Monkeys. The experiment by Goy showed that “female offspring of androgen-treated mothers exhibited more masculine behaviors as juveniles than did the control offspring whose mother were not given the male hormones” (Udry, p 446). As a

It has been believed for decades that women generally tend to be more emotionally expressive than men. However, do this gender difference really exist between men and women? Many studies have found that this indeed is the case, however studies have also found that men can be more emotional than women too, depending on the type of emotion expressed. However, one emotion that women generally are thought to express more than men is sadness. The most common way seen to express sadness is by crying. There are numerous factors that can account for this difference in expressiveness however, this article will discuss what appears to be two of the most significant causation, which is biological and environmental, more specifically, the difference seen from an evolutionary perspective and a stereotypical perspective. The effect and significance of this difference will also be addressed and whether this difference should be annulled.

Four hundred and twenty women, ages 19 to 40 participated in the experiment. Women were selected as the primary participants for this study because when it comes to emotional display, they are often said to express more “powerless emotions (sadness, fear) and happiness more than men” (Safdar, Friedlmeier, Matsumoto, Yoo, Kwantes, Kakai, & Shigemasu 2009.) The experiment was designed for people with at least a junior high school education, of any income, and ethnicity. The participants were all students from Stony Brook University that learned of the study either from hearing a class announcement, received an email invitation or saw one of the many study recruitment postings on or around campus. The selected participants were all notified of a $10 gift card upon their completion of the study.