Following a discussion Steve Hosier had in a lecture a few days ago about depression and how women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression, it got me thinking about coping mechanisms each gender has and how that could affect amounts of diagnosis.
It is true that diagnosis in women may be more prevalent because they are more likely to seek help when the physical signs start showing, and that males avoid the intimacy of talking about their feelings and so do not look for help but suffer the same amount of depression, so it got me thinking about the differences men and women face in coping with the disorder as well as how the problem manifests...
(Yeahh writing this Ive just realised it is more informative than topical, but hey its pretty interesting)
According to upliftprogram.com Males are more likely to blame others, self medicate with drug use, lose sleep and are often angry. Women seemingly blame themselves, feel sad, anxious, withdraw, and self medicate through food...
http://www.upliftprogram.com/facts_depression_men.html
I find it interesting to think of how much stigma is still attached to this illness and how the stigma is reinforced and made more apparent because of your gender despite it being a fairly common disorder!
Any thoughts on the subject, psychology crew?
It is true that diagnosis in women may be more prevalent because they are more likely to seek help when the physical signs start showing, and that males avoid the intimacy of talking about their feelings and so do not look for help but suffer the same amount of depression, so it got me thinking about the differences men and women face in coping with the disorder as well as how the problem manifests...
(Yeahh writing this Ive just realised it is more informative than topical, but hey its pretty interesting)
According to upliftprogram.com Males are more likely to blame others, self medicate with drug use, lose sleep and are often angry. Women seemingly blame themselves, feel sad, anxious, withdraw, and self medicate through food...
http://www.upliftprogram.com/facts_depression_men.html
I find it interesting to think of how much stigma is still attached to this illness and how the stigma is reinforced and made more apparent because of your gender despite it being a fairly common disorder!
Any thoughts on the subject, psychology crew?
After a very sad week in the sports world with the death of Gary Speed, it is sad to say but his death has highlighted the effects of unspoken depression. It was never clear that he had depression ( and as it still stands, it is still unclear) but it wasn’t clear because he never showed any symptoms or different emotions. In the sports world it is like living in a bubble where performance, ability and actions are judged at every moment. Alongside this, sports people are viewed as strong individuals and signs of weakness would ruin their image.The PFA have now produced a guide book on handling depression that will be sent out to footballers as an attempt to improve the support that is there for footballers, as there has been a long list of footballs who have been diagnosed with depression.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to gender differences I too find it strange how much of a stigma is attached to depression and how males don’t express emotion leading to further complications (undiagnosed mental illness – similar to Gary speed?) Lets hope with the media coverage of this tragic loss that the stigma will be reduced and awareness increased.
As mentioned above the death of Gary Speed has certainly raised the awareness of depression. Many men do not come forward and admit they are suffering and I think Speed has showed how easy it is for something to be hidden. After all many of us including myself saw him on football focus less than 24 hours prior to the event. He seemed optimistic and living near his home I have witnessed many times him encouraging younger children and inspiring them. Hopefully by something so tragic happening it will inspire campaigns to get 'celebrities' to speak about their diagnosis and allow people to realise it is ok to not hide something away.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, women are more likely to seek help from others in order to cope. But maybe the reason women are more likely to be depressed is because we have to cope with men. We are less likely to be laid back with everything so when men go out shopping with a woman it’s obvious that you are stressed out like crazy but you don’t give a damn because you prefer to pretend not to care. Whereas women can’t be that laid back, because when you throw a sock on the floor over and over again we lose our minds. Or maybe it’s because we empathize more with people’s problems, for example, I cry whenever I watch a depressing episode of Waterloo Road or any other stupid drama, however, men are less likely to cry. Therefore, we seem more in touch with our emotions then men do. Or perhaps it’s simply sex, you men always get an orgasm and release the tension but then us women are left unsatisfied, I mean that would depress me.
ReplyDeleteBeck et al conducted interviews on 50 patients diagnosed with depression, 16 men and 34 women, aged 18 to 48. Face to face interviews were conducted and some patients kept a diary.
ReplyDeleteBeck found that certain themes emerged in the depressed patients, which did not appear in people who have not been diagnosed with depression. These were low self-esteem, self-blame, overwhelming responsibilities and desire to escape, paranoia, anxiaty caused by fear for personal safety, and accusations against other people.
In this study there were no significant differences between males and females.
The biological approach does suggest that depression is genetic, however it is interesting to find that some studies such as Kendler & Prescott (1999) have shown that men and women are equally likely to inherit major depression, through evident prevalence rates in this population-based twin study. Therefore it may be that women are more likely to be influenced by environmental factors than men, and these genes are simply more or less likely to be triggered in women than men.
ReplyDeleteIt has been found that females in their late teens and late 30's to 40's have the highest rates of depression and some evidence suggests that this is due to self perceptions and changes in body morphology at these times. (puberty for teens and menopause for adult women)(Angold et al, 1999)is it possible that similar applications could be made to male depression? There is less social pressure on looking 'perfect' in males but the self perception and changes in morphology could be relevant as although they may not be focused on physical appearance they may be focused on other attributes like wealth or stress so a study could be conducted to see if there is any relationship between depression and perhaps more material pressures such as wealth or social status.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Depression, i think gender bias really exist in this subject. This is due to personality difference between male and female. Male seems to be less worry about things happening around. Besides, they are less willing to talk about their worries with the others, which may lead to less male diagnosis of depression. On the other hand, females, especial young females, seems to have more worries in their daily live. For teens, social relationship is a main contributor of stress. For the married ones, the family matter is a main source of stress. Moreover, women are more willing to share their worries with others, leading to more diagnosis of depression.
ReplyDeleteDue to the difference of personality and living style, i think gender bias exists in the subject of depression