DEPRESSION IN WOMEN

DEPRESSION IN WOMEN

Depression is a serious psychological disorder that can have a very negative threat to every aspect of an individual’s life. Our social-economic life, relationships, career, and sense of self-esteem and purpose can be drastically affected by depression; this is because depression touches every area of our lives. 

Women are particularly and easily affected by depression. In fact, according to the National Mental Health Association, about one in every eight women will develop depression at some point during their lifetime. The good news is that therapy to depression is gaining more ground and becoming more successful in the fight against depression despite some bottlenecks in identification and treatment.

Women are not the only creature that suffers depression, is just that they are more prone to depression than men and children. This is because many psychological factors contribute to the uniqueness of depression in women—from reproductive hormones to social pressures to the female response to stress.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WOMEN GET DEPRESSED 1. They seem to apportion blame themselves. 2. They usually feel sad, worthless, lacking concentration and more apathetic. 3. They find it hardly to talk about it, and sometime create an episode of doubt. 4. They feel guilty for actions that are not been caused by them. 5. They tend to avoid some social activities like group contact, and discussion and  6. Avoid sexual interaction and even sex.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS OF DEPRESSION IN WOMEN

(1)     WOMAN ARE MORE EMOTIONAL - the psychological makeup of every woman is easily affected by their level of emotions, their feelings towards some certain things that happen to them and around them are absorbed and not easily let go. This includes crying to relieve emotional tension, trying to figure out the reason for a cause, and get more focus.

(2)      STRESS RELATED FACTOR - The female physiological response to stress is different. Women produce more stress hormones than men do, and the female sex hormone progesterone prevents the stress hormone system from turning itself off as it does in men.  Some studies show that women are more likely than men to develop depression under lower levels of stress. This stress can be from the office, business, family related conflict, household core and others.

(3)     BODY STRUCTURE - The gender difference in depression begins in adolescence. The emergence of sex differences during puberty likely plays a vital role. Some researchers point to body dissatisfaction, which increases in girls during the sexual development of puberty. Women have higher chance of depression right after childbirth.

(4)     FEAR AND ANXIETY: This mostly occurs during the adolescent and adulthood stage, when women are engulf with the fear and anxiety of sexual activities. Menstrual circle can sometime change as expected also during the postpartum period, about 85% of women experience some type of mood disturbance. And the burden of carrying pregnancy mostly when it is not being planned. There are also cases of increase anxiety as a result of emotional imbalance.

(5)     SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL: Women are easily affected by depression and usually affects their social activities, for instance, such disturbances could force an average woman to avoid sexual activities, even to discuss sex with their partners.

(6)     DISTURBANCES IN SLEEP CIRCLE: Most women a prolong sleep disturbances which includes difficulties sleeping at night  (insomnia), some may sleep very late and wake up very early or in the middle of the night and not easily go to back to sleep, while others report cases of prolong sleep episode (hypersomnia).