Also in the Fall 2007 issue of the "Johns Hopkins Depression and Anxiety Bulletin," a closer look at the symptoms of depression in men, and how they differ to classical symptoms most often found in women:
It is difficult to make definitive statements about differences in how men and women FEEL when they’re depressed. However, it is clear that how men and women express those feelings can be different.Most experts agree that men are more likely to act out their inner turmoil, while women are more likely to turn their feelings inward. Here are some of the differences:
Female Depression
• Feels sad, apathetic, and worthless
• Feels anxious and scared
• Always tries to be nice
• Withdraws when feeling hurt
• Feels slowed down and nervous
• Blames herself
• Has trouble setting boundaries
• Uses food, friends, and “love” to self-medicate
• Believes her problems could be solved if she could be a better spouse, co-worker, parent, friend, etc.
• Asks herself, “Am I lovable enough?”Male Depression
• Feels angry, irritable, and underappreciated
• Feels suspicious and guarded
• Behaves overtly and overtly hostile
• Attacks when feeling hurt
• Feels restless and agitated
• Feels others are to blame
• Needs control at all costs
• Uses alcohol, TV, sports, and sex to self-medicate
• Believes his problems could be solved if his spouse, co-worker, parent, friend, etc. would treat him better
• Asks himself, “Am I being loved enough?”Although studies show that depression is more than twice as common in women as in men, some experts believe that male depression is significantly underdiagnosed, primarily because the symptoms are not necessarily what we expect.
Research also suggests there may be genetic differences between depression in men and women. Five years ago, researches from the University of Pittsburgh identified 19 chromosomal regions linked to one form of major depression, but only three of them were significantly linked in both men and women. The other 16 were only linked in one sex.
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Tori I would tell your husband to try LITHIUM caz it is the only drug that really works for bipolar
Most of the symptoms seem to apply to me. The male symptoms do not include fatigue and a real lack of ambition. I have both. The alcohol, sex and sports are not in my regimine for self medication. I have housework and outside chores that I use to fill my needs. The underappreciation that I am feeling comes from a whole household of what I refer to as laziness. My wife has anxiety and panic attacks. She seems to let her girls (my step, 15 & 17) to always put her down and walk all over her. I feel frustrated and helpless because they know that I'm not "Dad" and have very little say in what they get away with. My depresion is what I refer to as a "catch 22". I'm the only real income. I work too hard and get too little help from the family around me. Money is always an issue and emotional assaults happen towards me(from the girls) about once every half hour. I still take the time to smell the roses, but just don't always have the time for myself. When the roses happen it's too long since the last time and never a big enough whiff.
Concerning depression for men and how it differs from women- I have a very positive mental attitude, most of the time. I work hard and have a fairly good education and a good profession. My husband is a very good man, he cares for me and does not drink alcohol, any more ( sober for 25 years) nor chase other women, nor gamble. He has a very negative attitude. He does not like the town we live in, I do, and he is pregidous against certain ethnic groups, I am Not. He is depressed most of the time. He does not make as much money as I do, which bothers him a lot. What can I do to help him?
GET a LIFE!! If you still need to give people this advice then perhaps you need to look in the mirror.
I'll give you some of my experience for free too. I tend to do for others until i am hurting so bad I just want to kill myself. Was that your desired outcome for all this giving? When i am depressed i feel a need to justify my existence. Then i start helping until i can't see straight. Then i call the mental health service until someone says : you may be a bit overextended. I go read a book and eventually (eventually may come before I need to be hospitalized) i feel much better and then I can deal with the mess my life is in because i keep on thinking i just have to fix you to feel better.
A little self interest goes a long way with me.
When i give in to my anxiety and my training and I help you instead of me i get worse for the most part. As the depression gets worse i become less able to help you or me but i keep trying until i am screaming, yelling, crying and looking for ways to kill myself.
Does that mean i never do a good deed? Not at all. I just pick and choose what i can reasonably do and for whom. and i wish i could do more. I have a poor sense of self preservation sometimes. Today i signed up to host a party and my husband is carrying on about what we need financially to go to California for my daughters wedding. Plus i am being encouraged to return to my volunteer job, the one where everyone is gossiping about everyone else. (shudder)
For other people with mild depression who don't normally think of others it can be a revelation to do so but for me with a history of doing this since i was in grad school I have to pick and choose when and even if i do something special.
There is seldom any surgery for this kind of pain. Plain ole neurosis may respond well to techniques but the only technique i know to deal with this is to tell myself over and over: this is a chemical trick of the brain and it isn't reality. And then I must wait it out. The more i fight it the worse it is.
When i am massively depressed i can look at a sunset or the gorgeous parrots that flock here in the spring and still feel awful. I know that if i wasn't depressed i would feel fabulous looking at them. Instead i feel like my whole family died. I get mad at myself because i have so little reason to be sad and yet here i am. I feel bad because my husband suffers when I am like this and that leads to suicidal thoughts. i feel so unworthy of his suffering and yet i can not make myself un-depressed anymore than i can make myself two inches taller.
It is a physical illness with psychological symptoms. It is not a psychological illness so it will not respond to the usual things. Time, medication, and no stress plus an understanding partner gets me past it as fast as i can get better. Judgmental people (or the fear of judgmental people), feeling guilty, feeling angry at myself, feeling worthless and useless make it take so much longer and make it so much worse.
I am the original rose smeller. Except when i am depressed.
And it is different for men. I have known many men with diagnoses of depression, bipolar and schizophrenia and almost all of them tend to go to the anger when they are depressed. It is confusing at first until i remember that it is a trick and this isn't them talking but the depression. I helps that sometimes i also get angry. That is a whole other letter though.
Does this make any difference to you or would you still tell me to go to a movie (as if i had the ability to chose one when i am depressed LOL)
Hoping you never have this kind of depression,
Nora
all the symptoms enumerated on male depression should have been simplified to "HE SUCCUMBS TO BECOMING A COMPLETE A.. H..E, JERK, D..K H..D, S..T H..D, EGOTISTIC MANIAC, and other names they ought to be called!!!!!!!!
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