According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there are 12 million clinically depressed women in the United States and 6 million clinically depressed men. One out of ever 8 women is depressed … and there are twice as many women than men with depression. So, what is going on?
There is room here to argue that men’s symptoms surface so differently that their depression goes undetected, or that men are less likely to seek help, thus less likely to be diagnosed. Arguments aside, that is a lot of women with depression, 12 million too many. Depression is a serious debilitating disease. According to the World Health Organization, “Depression is the leading cause of disability as measured by YLD (Years Living with a Disability) [in the world!].” Depression is not sadness, though the word depression is used to describe sadness, depression is an illness with sadness being one of its many possible symptoms.
What are the symptoms of depression? According to McWilliams and Bloomfield’s renowned book How to Heal Depression symptoms of depression may include:
Persistent sad or "empty" mood;
Loss of interest or pleasure in ordinary activities, including sex;
Decreased energy, fatigue, being "slowed down";
Sleep disturbances (insomnia, early-morning waking, or oversleeping);
Eating disturbances (loss of appetite and weight, or weight gain);
Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions;
Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness;
Thoughts of death or suicide, suicide attempts;
Irritability;
Excessive crying; and
Chronic aches and pains that don't respond to treatment
Dr. Virginia Valian is a professor who teaches gender and psychology at Hunter College and who wrote one of the most important books I have ever read, Why So Slow? In her book and her lectures, she describes how the accumulation of small disadvantages creates the gap between the success of women and men within our culture. She defines what she calls “gender schemas”, which are “non conscious hypothesis we all have about different characteristics of men and women.” Her book outlines her primary concern of what she has seen again and again as the advancement of women being extremely slow despite the rapidly increasing number of us obtaining advanced degrees. The price we pay “for competent women who were violating the gender schema for women, the price that they pay… is to be perceived as unlikable,” Dr. Valian eloquently iterates.
Studies with fraternal twins show that depression is not more common with an XX chromosome as it is with an XY chromosome. Our biology is not what makes us vulnerable to this debilitating illness. What I wonder is if the accumulation of disadvantages that impede our ability to advance in so many professions also cause depression?
Sources
http://www.nmha.org/index.cfm?objectid=C7DF952E-1372-4D20-C8A3DDCD5459D07B
http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/depression/definition/en/index.html
http://www.hypericum.com/dep/deptoc.htm
http://paid.uci.edu/chairs%20retreat%20files/ArrwhdMtrls2008/Z%20Gender%20Schemas%20Dr%20Valian.pdf
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/56/1/39