Women’s Depression: Symptoms And Causes

Find out in this article the symptoms and causes of women’s depression. Depression, it leads to disability and reduces the quality of life. But in fact, this is a serious state where a person is constantly in a depressed mood. It is supplemented by sleep and appetite disturbances, feelings of anxiety and guilt. Sometimes a person falls into apathy: he can’t work and even perform some minor household activities (brush his teeth, for example, or go to the store.). People with depression are at high risk of suicide. This means women’s depression must be treated. But our attitude towards mental health still leaves much to be desired.

Why are we talking specifically about women’s depression?

Both sexes are susceptible to mental illness, and men can also get sick. But women suffer from depression more often. Major depression men: 8.5% women compared to 4.7% men. Depression cannot be attributed to the menstrual cycle alone: it lasting more than one standard cycle and is influenced by many factors. But the women’s depression in physiology clearly did not stand aside:

Because women can give birth:

The incidence of statistics is also influenced by a purely female version of depression: postpartum. This is not about banal fatigue and lack of sleep, which probably all parents experience, but about a lingering state with all the signs of

depression, which appeared precisely after childbirth. According to Depression and Mental Health by the Numbers: Facts, Statistics, and You National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 10-15% of women develop postpartum depression: it is women’depression.

Because women live worse:

You can argue as much as you want about who is harder: women or men. But in general, women in the world often live poorer, they have limited access to resources, including health care. Women’s depression: Understanding the gender gap. In developed countries, women often experience a double burden: both in the workplace and at home, performing household chores. Parents and children, men and women in the family and society. Women have a greater chance of experience depression in leadership positions, as found Women in Positions of Power Show More Signs of Depression Than Menat the University of Texas. Researchers suggest this is due to stereotypes: women have to overcome them when they get a high position, while men are less likely to encounter a biased attitude at work. Women have a greater chance of experience violence. According to Violence against women WHO, every third, Has suffered violence, either physical or sexual at least once during their life. Any such episodes can be a trigger for depression: there are the causes of women’s depression.

Because it is so accepted:

It is believed that women react to everything that happens to them, much brighter than men. Therefore, they pay more attention to their feelings and give them a way out. Women feel anxious. Women’s depression is often associated with other mental disorders, each of which in itself requires treatment. For example, anxiety. The woman begins to anticipate a threat, an uncertain danger. She is haunted by concern about failure at work or in her personal life. She becomes very restless and is very worried about the life, health of her family and friends, for their well- being. Often during an attack, anxiety is combined with palpitations, heart pains, dizziness, feeling short of breath, nausea and abdominal cramps. Against this background, the depressed mood remains unnoticed. A significant gap is almost doubled. Where it comes from, no one knows for sure. However, no one knows exactly why depression appears at all. Scientists suspect that hormones, heredity, traumatic circumstances of life are to blame. There are also several theories about why women get sick more often.

Because women have a special hormonal background:

As far as to the female mood, many people have a desire to write off everything to the physiology and the notorious PMS, from which all the troubles are. Hormonal fluctuations really affect mood: before puberty, the frequency of

diseases in children of different sexes does not differ, but after it, girls begin to get sick more often.

Why is women’s depression more prevalent?

Women’s depression isn’t just a bad mood. Now it is fashionable to designate with this word any bouts of blues and apathy. In fact, depression refers to a disease with varying degrees of severity and symptoms. During this state, a person cannot live and work normally, study and carry out their daily duties. Feelings of sadness and apathy are pronounced and last for a long time, at least 2 weeks. There are cases when depression accompanies a person for six months or more. Lingering spleen never occurs from scratch. The disease is preceded by a crisis, some important events in life. The death of a loved one, divorce, dismissal from work, expulsion from the institute, the rupture of socially significant ties.

The reason for the disorder always has a personal connotation. There are people with a depressive personality, in whom severe stressful situations trigger the disease mechanism. If you do not solve the problem on your own or with the help of specialists, depression can drag on and cause serious harm to the human psyche and socialization. Close people of a woman prone to blues need to be especially careful and not to miss alarming symptoms. Since that women are often more emotional by nature, they need to listen more closely to their soul. The symptoms of depression are extensive and affect both a woman’s emotional background and bodily manifestations. When diagnosing, one must take into account that there should be several signs of depressive disorder that bother a woman for more than 2 weeks, prevent her from fully living and working. In a word, they are quite pronounced and permanent. Among the emotional manifestations of women’s depression, it is customary to distinguish:

• A feeling of longing, constant depressed mood
• Feelings of despair, loss of meaning in life
• Aggravation of various fears and phobias
• Anxious thoughts, accompanied by inner tension and a premonition of trouble
• Irritability for no particular reason, mood swings
• Feeling of guilt and self-flagellation
• Decreased self-esteem, self-confidence
• A woman is looking for flaws in herself and is consistently dissatisfied with herself
• Classes that previously brought happiness and pleasure are no longer pleasing enough
• Interest in the outside world is declining

The woman becomes emotionless, there is a “dullness” of feelings. Heightened anxiety and concern for the health and fate of loved ones appear. There is a fear of making a mistake when doing public affairs. The physiological symptoms of women’s depression are equally important in the diagnosis. It is especially important to give them attention if a woman is unable to adequately describe her feelings and emotions.

The bodily symptoms of women’s depression disorder are quite common:

• Sleep is disturbed. Both insomnia and increased drowsiness are possible
• There is an appetite disorder
• It either disappears or rises significantly
• The intestinal function is impaired
• Most often, constipation occurs
• Libido disappears or significantly decreases
• Sex becomes uninteresting and unnecessary
• The energy potential decreases, the habitual physical or mental stress causes a breakdown, increased fatigue
• Pains and discomfort appear in the body: heart, stomach, muscles.

It happens that a woman heals physical ailments and misses the symptoms of depression, so a comprehensive diagnosis is important to identify also the behavioural manifestations of depression.

Behavioural symptoms of women’s depression:

Apathy, passivity, lack of desire to get involved in active and purposeful activities. Decreased socialization; a woman avoids contact with other people, more often retires, loses interest in the people around her; the conscious refusal of entertainment. Addiction to addiction; a woman resorts to alcohol, cigarettes, and other psychoactive substances that provide temporary relief. Requirements for personal hygiene are reduced. There are also so-called “mental, cognitive signs of depression.” When diagnosing a disease, specialists pay attention to the following symptoms:

• Difficulty concentrating and concentrating on an object
• Difficulty in making decisions
• The dominance of negative and disturbing thoughts in relation to his personality, life, the world around him
• Suicidal thoughts
• There are thoughts of personal worthlessness, helplessness and uselessness
• Thought processes slow down, there is an effect of inhibition
• The specialist usually diagnoses depression based on several symptoms that appear for at least 2-3 weeks.