Depression And Women Research Paper

My grandma used to always tell me when I was growing up that women are emotional creatures. Whenever I would be upset over a breakup, or something that had happened, and didn’t understand why my boyfriend at the time or male friends didn’t feel as strongly about the situation she would say that women see and feel emotions and experiences differently than men. Granted, my grandmother is no scientist or researcher, however I do agree with her to some extent. In my opinion the first things that come to my mind when I think of correlations between depression and women would be hormones. From the time women hit puberty onward our hormones dictate and play a part in practically everything we do and how we feel about those things. The textbook talks

“The important message for doctors is that depression is extremely common in women in their reproductive years, and that it often goes undetected. While genetics and life circumstances-ill parents, loss of a , friend or loved one, a stormy marriage, kids moving out (or back in)-can conspire to make women vulnerable to midlife depression, so can hormonal fluctuations” (Milne 2005). At the end of the day, what are women supposed to do about the prevalence of depression among us? Perhaps education and awareness is the answer. If people work to change the societal norms and teach young girls that their place in the world is not predetermined, that they don’t have to fit in the square box, then maybe that could be a start to something bigger. Yes, women are more likely to suffer from major depression than men (Beidel, Bulik, Stanley 206). But that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Teach our girls that despite reproductive related risk factors, and hormonal input, that it is okay to seek help, and to not wait. Teach them to know their family history and to advocate for one another. Some people say that men are strong, and tough and unwavering, but in my eyes so are women, if not more so. I watched my own mother struggle through years and years of emotional and verbal abuse, but all the while she still was an amazing mother to me and my siblings, she was an ever faithful wife, and a full time nurse who put in at least 65 hours every week as the breadwinner in our household. She fought through her demons, but in order to reduce the amount of women who suffer from depression, they have to know that they are not alone, and that they don’t have to do it