I recently did some research for a women's magazine about depression in young women (ages 18 to 30). The editors wanted to know why so many more women than men struggle with depression.
I got out my copy of "A Deeper Shade of Blue: A Woman's Guide to Recognizing and Treating Depression in Her Childbearing Years" by Ruta Nonacs, M.D., Ph.D., whose work fascinates me. Here are some excerpts from her book that help to explain why women are more vulnerable to depression and anxiety:
Depression is about twice as common in women as in men, with about 1 woman in 4 suffering from depression at some point during her lifetime. Depression may strike at any time, but women appear to be particularly vulnerable during their childbearing years. Women are at highest risk for depression during pregnancy and shortly after delivery. One recent study indicated that as many as 25 percent of women suffer from depression during either pregnancy or postpartum period. Yet, in most of these women, the illness goes unrecognized and untreated.
Many have attributed this disparity to the various stresses women face as a result of their gender and the demands women face as they occupy multiple--and often conflicting--roles within the family, in the community, and at work. Over the last decade, researchers have also focused on the role of reproductive hormones, particularly estrogen.
In is interesting to note that before adolescence, rates of depression are about the same among girls and boys. Thing begin to shift between the ages of eleven and thirteen. Over these years, there is a dramatic rise in the prevalence of depression in girls, and by the age of fifteen females are twice as likely as males to suffer from depression. What happens to create this gender gap during adolescence is a topic of intense debate and research. There is no doubt that adolescence is a time characterized by dramatic psychological and physical changes for women, and it is easy to imagine that this tumultuous transition may render adolescent girls more vulnerable to depression. However, a woman's risk for depression persists beyond puberty and she remains at higher risk for depressive illness than a man throughout her entire adult life.
At no other point are women more vulnerable to depression than during their childbearing years. How can we explain this susceptibility to depression? From a psychological standpoint, this is a time when she is faced with many life-changing and potentially stressful transforming events; during this span of years a woman pursues her education, career, marriage, childbearing, and child rearing. These changes provide the emotional context within which depression may take hold. However, in addition to being an emotionally charged time, the childbearing years are also characterized by dramatic hormonal shifts related to reproductive functioning. Every month a woman completes a menstrual cycle and is exposed to rising and then falling levels of reproduce hormones. During pregnancy and after delivery, a woman experiences even more dramatic shifts in this reproductive hormonal environment. Many specialists in the field of women's mental health have postulated that it is the combination of psychological stressors and hormonal events that make women so vulnerable to depression during the childbearing years.
Not only is a woman exposed to different types of hormones and different levels of these hormones than a man, throughout her reproductive years she experiences constant hormonal fluctuations. ... Experts believe that these hormonal shifts may act as a trigger for depression in some women and that women who have premenstrual mood changes may also be more vulnerable to depression at other times when exposed to significant hormonal fluctuations, such as after childbirth or during the transition to menopause.
While it is clear that certain women may be more vulnerable to these hormonal shifts, it is not clear whether hormonal factors increase vulnerability in all women. Some researchers hypothesize that these monthly hormonal changes act as a type of recurrent stressor, and with these repetitive insults, the underlying architecture of a woman's brain is somehow altered so that is more susceptible to depression.
To read more Beyond Blue, go to www.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.
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you think you are depressed now well wait until you are 60+ your body betrays you and you fear about retiring because you don't have enough money to do so - option, work until you are dying.........then hope it happens fast so you don't lose your home you spent so many years protecting WITHOUT ANOTHER TO HELP YOU BECAUSE THEY BETRAYED YOU
I'm 71 and have never or hardly ever remember of having suffered of depresion; but lately, these passed 2 years I fall in it easily. I sometimes think it is not depression but what I feel it's awful. I don't want to go out, rarely fix my face like I did before, I work here in my house, but if I have to go out I look out for whatever excuse I can get, even lies, that harm no one but me.
I cry, and remember bad things all the time, like I chat with myself inventing stories about bad feelings,it's awful, and the worst part it that I used to use the computer to pray, and send messages, and read about all these things, but I have abandoned it.
Every woman, man and child's story of suffering from depression makes me ache. It doesn't matter when it hits you, at what age, it can take you down.
I do feel for women in their child-bearing years. Society doesn't offer a lot of help, as much of women are still defined by our children, our men, our families, but I do see hope for women. Especially during their 30's, and 40's, many women have a greater sense of who they are; apart from family and friends. Their ego comes into its own, and they discover, and fight, for their rights to be who and what they want to be.
Yet I don't see women fighting for each other. Too often I see women betray friends to hold onto a flimsy social standing. Seeing women cut off women to gain favor with men, or groups with more social acceptance, or financial standing, always hurts; no matter your age.
Where do women go who have run out of chances in a society that favors men, money, beauty, and fleeting popularity? What if family and children have never materialized, or they've all disappeared - for whatever reasons that happen? Beauty is gone and careers are over, or no longer progressing. What of them?
Why do men actually succeed in comitting suicide at a rate three times higher than women is a better question.
Why do men actually succeed in comitting suicide at a rate three times higher than women is a better question.
-- Women probably think about how suicide would effect their loved ones more than men would; they would be more inclined to not end their depression in a selfish way.
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