Variations in the Experience of Depression

The popular Disney film, Beauty and the Beast, the beloved character, Beast, seems to have the characteristics of depression, and learned helplessness. Martin Seligman began an experiment of shocking dogs in 1956. His study involved evaluating the reaction to a dog being allowed to escape during being shocked. Some of these animals were classically conditioned to associate the ringing of a bell to a shock given. Within the next few experiments, the dogs would either run away at the sound of a bell or show a fear related behavior. For some of the dogs used in the experiment, although get could escape the enclosure from a shock, they didn't, they just sat there and took the pain; Seligman explained this as being “Learned Helplessness”.

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

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.

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

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.

3. As a result of this research, it is universally agreed upon that females are more susceptible to depression because of their gender specific stressful situations and their inability to deal with

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

Discussion of gender differences here suggested that women are more often diagnosed with depression than men, and that men were more likely to engage

When a young girls have their self esteem plummeted due to the stereotypes they are drastically susceptible to depression. According to Christina M. Mulé, in her article “Why women are more susceptible to Depression: An explanation for gender differences,” she explains how hormones in females affect depression, “Hormones and heredity factors are taken into account and provide some evidence of truth when comparing depression susceptibility between women and men.” This is taken into account for young girls because, “The interactive and additive effects of early depressive symptoms, the pubertal transition, and stressful life events will explain a significant portion of the association between gender and depressive symptoms.” When these young girls are exposed to stressful events such as self esteem issues due to the media portraying stereotypes they will be affected by Depression; especially due to the fact that they have, “higher average levels of depressive symptoms than adolescent boys will during

The region with highest mental health illness is the North East of England with 25.6% of which 15.8 % is for women compared to men with 11.7 % of the same region. The data shows that 15.8 % of mixed anxiety and depressive disorder affect women. Maybe this caused by various factors such as, women at risk of poor mental health than men. Physical and sexual abuse of girls and women can have a long-term impact on their mental health. It has been discovered that depression is more common in women than men for example 1 in 4 women will require treatment for depression at sometime, compared to 1 in 10 men, this may be due to social and biological factors.

This data proves that gender roles have toxic effects on women more frequently than men and that it is crucial to do our best to erase these norms in society in an attempt to lower the number of people with society that are diagnosed with the common mental health disorders. It is also asserted in “Sex Differences in Depression: Do Women Always Have Higher Rates?” that, “the feminine sex role is more problematic psychologically, and [Gove and Tudor] show evidence that females have higher rates of mental illness in studies both of treated and untreated populations”(Rosenfield 33). This ,once again, supports the theory that women have a higher rate of mental illness because of the social standards that are imposed on them.

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.

In future prevention of depressive disorders may become an important way in addition to treatment to reduce a huge public health burden of depression in women. There is need to press forward an understanding of female depression which may require future epidemiologic research to pay attention on first onsets and follow incidents associates of young women through the pubertal transition into young adulthood with proper measures of both sex hormones and gender-related environmental experiences. An improvement in routine clinical practice to identify some of the women at risk by better communication between health professionals and a functional intervention aimed at primary prevention by jointly manipulating assumed biological, environmental and societal risk factors. Understanding aspects of depression in women, including it as part of health education, de stigmatizing depression and raising awareness

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. For this study this definition is taken to measure the level of depression among working women due to role