May 4, 2009 • 10 mins
Statistics show that women are twice as likely as men to suffer from major depression. But why? Tune in as Molly and Cristen explore the science and stereotypes behind female depression in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told you?
From house stuff Works dot com. Hey and welcome with
the podcast. This is Molly and I'm Kristen and Kristen.
I was thinking about an age old stereotype about women
(00:23):
recently incoln, which is that women are more in touch
with their feelings. I think we get this from women's magazines.
We make it it even just from our moms when
we're told, you know, he just kicked you because he
liked you. You know, we get this message that boys
aren't in touch with their feelings. Girls are. That's why
we you know, when we have fights with each other,
we just don't get over them. Well right, Um, we
(00:43):
might be more Women might be more prone to you know,
just really express times when they're feeling really good, but
also when we're feeling pretty low call up our girl friends,
you know, talk about breakups and and traumatic things like
that that happened, whereas guys might not be as uh
as quick to call up their brows and uh and
(01:05):
chat about how how you know, Jane just broke his heart? Right,
I mean we're more apt to lay out all out
on the table, which may be a reason for this statistic,
which is that women are twice as likely to suffer
from major chronic depression than males. You know, one theory
behind this, you know, sort of very big difference is
(01:26):
that women are just more likely to seek treatment for depression.
It's not that they have depression any more often, but
they just seek treatment for it, right whereas a man
might be more um, socially trained to suppress his feelings
and just kind of muddle on through things until until
they hopefully get better. But we might be kind of
oversimplifying this issue. So so let's look a little deeper
(01:47):
at what depression is and how it might affect women differently. Um. Overall,
one in ten adults, about nineteen million of us experienced
symptoms of major depression every year. It's a big it's
a big number. So smily, what exactly are some of
the symptoms, um that constitute major depression. Well 'll me
give you some symptoms from the National Institute of Mental Health.
(02:08):
They are persistent sad, anxious or empty feelings, feelings of help,
hopelessness and or pessimism, irritability, restlessness, anxiety, guilt, you feel worthless,
you feel helpless, You're not interested in your old activities,
your interests. You just are tired, decreased energy. It's not
a happy time and it can majorly affect uh your
(02:30):
ability just to get through a day. Right. And I
think according to UM doctors standards, you you need to
show about five of these symptoms for them to to
think that you are majorly depressed clinically, you know, diagnosed
with major depressive disorder. Right. And the factors behind uh,
these types of symptoms could range from genetic, biochemical, psychological,
(02:52):
and environmental stressors. There's not one single thing that can
cause a person to become depressed. Right. But the reason
that when them might be more prone to depression is
that some of these factors hit women harder uh than men.
And of course we cannot have this discussion without discussing
our favorite thing in the whole world, hormones, because for once,
(03:13):
these hormones are really well, not just for once, they
always are doing this. They're really kind of messing with
our brain here in terms of our likelihood to get depression. Right. Um,
if you look back at at children, okay, boys and girls,
until they reach out of lescens have about the same
rates of depression. But then once hormones start kicking in
(03:33):
around puberty, that's when the levels really start to change.
And that's why a lot of researchers are looking at those, uh,
those major hormonal changes in women's life with puberty, pregnancy, menopause,
to to find out how hormones might be affecting our
brains to to promote depression, right, I mean, they can
look even just at very small times, like between your periods,
(03:55):
and they're finding they are huge shifts and how a
woman is able to deal with stressors, and how that
that inability of deal might make them more depressed. You know, Kristen,
the first time I went to the guy of collegists,
actually she told me, um that if I ever felt depressed,
it was likely hormones just messing with my brain chemistry.
I mean, I wasn't depressed them, but she said, you know,
(04:16):
if you ever are, it's a very common thing in
women and molly. In addition to how hormones might be
affecting women's brains, it also research is also indicated that
men and women might simply deal with stressful events in
a different way. And this goes all the way back
to adolescents. UM studies have shown that the girls are
(04:36):
more likely than boys to continue feeling bad after experiencing
difficult situations or events, like we might sort of hold
onto things and process traumatic events longer than boys will.
Oh we love our process. Yes, we love to replay everything.
And this ability to ruminate just really works against us
because we can't let go. And when we have things
(04:58):
social stresses to ruminate about, then that gets even worse.
There was a study UM published by the APIA, the
American Psychological Association, that said that one of the things
women are stressing about, uh is that they have less
power in society and that this manifests itself and the
fact that we have more housework you know, we don't have, um,
you know, the strong roles in our jobs that men do.
(05:20):
And as a result of all this stress, we're just
more depressed. Yeah, and I don't know that that's kind
of an older study that was published I think in
n And once again I think that that might sort
of Oversimplifypresian. Yeah, it sounds weird when you say it
out loud, that just you know, society can make us
more depressed, like we're being held down by the man,
(05:43):
literally by the man, the not depressed man exactly. Um. So,
the fact of the matter is researchers really aren't entirely
sure why why women are more prone to depression than man.
I mean, it looks like there's a pretty strong link
between hormones. There's a different way that we we think
about traumatic events and how stressful events um can affect
(06:05):
us maybe longer than boys. But the good news is
there are things that we can do to treat it exactly.
That's going back to my good old kynecologist. She very
strongly advocated that, you know, a lot of women would
really benefit from a mild antidepressant. So antidepressants are very
commonly diagnosed. They work to um normalize these brain chemicals
(06:26):
that might be getting thrown off by hormones. Basically, the
hormones could be breaking havoc on our neurotransmitters, and antidepressant
works to stabilize those. These neurotransmitters are serotonin, um dope amine,
and so you've probably heard a lot of the common
names that women might take Prozac, Alexa, zoloft, paxel, alexa,
pro um these have side effects. Will probably get into
(06:48):
those in a later time. But you know, some women
experienced decreased sex drive. They can be tired and irritable.
It takes a while for them to kick in. You
need to take anti pressants for about three to four
weeks before you'll notice any different. But only some people
might not be too keen on the idea of taking antidepressants. Um.
For instance, I mean, all those those side effects that
(07:09):
that you just mentioned don't exactly sound like they would
make make anyone less depressed. But um, if you're not
interested in in inipressence, as studies have shown that incorporating
thirty minutes of physical activity into your day three to
five times a week does improve your mood and reduce
anxiety because that's a natural way to boost those serotonin
levels that we were talking about. And they're also popular
(07:31):
herbal remedies, well, I shouldn't say remedies, herbal alternatives such
as Saint John's work that has um shown to be
somewhat effective with mild depression, right, and there are other, um,
non medical things you can do just having sort of
a realistic mindset about it, knowing that depression, if you
are depressed, is not going to end in a day. Um.
(07:51):
Sometimes it helps to break large tasks that seem insurmountable
into very small tasks and just you know, go up
through it one piece at a time. UM, Spend time
with people who make you feel good about yourself. Right
and only, I think a good thing to keep in mind, Uh,
is this issue that you brought up about whether or
not women kind of ruminate over problems too much. I mean,
(08:12):
there might be something to the fact that we might
just need to like put a problem down at some point,
realize that maybe we can't solve it immediately, but we
have to move on keep functioning, and that could help
maybe with some of these these symptoms as well. Right,
and I think you know an important thing. The National
Institutent Mental Health provides some tips for people who have friends,
(08:34):
UM who are really depressed and they say, you know,
you need to listen to them talk about this problem
they're ruminating on. But then you kind of if they
need to provide a reality check, you know, if they're
so focused on this negative take the time to point
out to a depressed friend that you know, you've got this, this,
and this going for you and does it really matter
if you know that that and that is is you know,
out of whack, right. Um. That reminds me of one
(08:57):
of these studies comparing depression and lescent girls and boys,
and it found that more than se of depressed girls
experienced a difficult or stressful life event prior to a
depressive episode, as compared to only fourteen percent of boys.
So talking about something like that that happens in having
having room to share might help. So I guess the
takeaway message for me, Christen is that you know, if
(09:20):
you are a woman and do feel depressed, know that
there might be a reason for it, and that it's
just not something you have to live with. Like we said,
find a friend, talk it out, figure out what you're
not letting go of. Not to be too you know,
new ag therapy about it. But there are reasons why
we might be more depressed, and it helps to look
at the reasons as opposed to just wallowing and sadness, right,
and looking at those symptoms. If you are exhibiting five
(09:42):
or more, it might be it might be time to
go to the doctor. Yeah, don't be held down by
your hormones exactly. So if you want to learn more
about hormones, depression and everything in between. Um, You can
check out how depression works on how stuff works dot com,
and if you want to send me an Molly a
question or comment, feel free to send us an email
(10:04):
at mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com. For
more on thiss and thousands of other topics. Is it
how stuff works dot com brought to you by the
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told you?
From house stuff Works dot com. Hey and welcome with
the podcast. This is Molly and I'm Kristen and Kristen.
I was thinking about an age old stereotype about women
(00:23):
recently incoln, which is that women are more in touch
with their feelings. I think we get this from women's magazines.
We make it it even just from our moms when
we're told, you know, he just kicked you because he
liked you. You know, we get this message that boys
aren't in touch with their feelings. Girls are. That's why
we you know, when we have fights with each other,
we just don't get over them. Well right, Um, we
(00:43):
might be more Women might be more prone to you know,
just really express times when they're feeling really good, but
also when we're feeling pretty low call up our girl friends,
you know, talk about breakups and and traumatic things like
that that happened, whereas guys might not be as uh
as quick to call up their brows and uh and
(01:05):
chat about how how you know, Jane just broke his heart? Right,
I mean we're more apt to lay out all out
on the table, which may be a reason for this statistic,
which is that women are twice as likely to suffer
from major chronic depression than males. You know, one theory
behind this, you know, sort of very big difference is
(01:26):
that women are just more likely to seek treatment for depression.
It's not that they have depression any more often, but
they just seek treatment for it, right whereas a man
might be more um, socially trained to suppress his feelings
and just kind of muddle on through things until until
they hopefully get better. But we might be kind of
oversimplifying this issue. So so let's look a little deeper
(01:47):
at what depression is and how it might affect women differently. Um. Overall,
one in ten adults, about nineteen million of us experienced
symptoms of major depression every year. It's a big it's
a big number. So smily, what exactly are some of
the symptoms, um that constitute major depression. Well 'll me
give you some symptoms from the National Institute of Mental Health.
(02:08):
They are persistent sad, anxious or empty feelings, feelings of help,
hopelessness and or pessimism, irritability, restlessness, anxiety, guilt, you feel worthless,
you feel helpless, You're not interested in your old activities,
your interests. You just are tired, decreased energy. It's not
a happy time and it can majorly affect uh your
(02:30):
ability just to get through a day. Right. And I
think according to UM doctors standards, you you need to
show about five of these symptoms for them to to
think that you are majorly depressed clinically, you know, diagnosed
with major depressive disorder. Right. And the factors behind uh,
these types of symptoms could range from genetic, biochemical, psychological,
(02:52):
and environmental stressors. There's not one single thing that can
cause a person to become depressed. Right. But the reason
that when them might be more prone to depression is
that some of these factors hit women harder uh than men.
And of course we cannot have this discussion without discussing
our favorite thing in the whole world, hormones, because for once,
(03:13):
these hormones are really well, not just for once, they
always are doing this. They're really kind of messing with
our brain here in terms of our likelihood to get depression. Right. Um,
if you look back at at children, okay, boys and girls,
until they reach out of lescens have about the same
rates of depression. But then once hormones start kicking in
(03:33):
around puberty, that's when the levels really start to change.
And that's why a lot of researchers are looking at those, uh,
those major hormonal changes in women's life with puberty, pregnancy, menopause,
to to find out how hormones might be affecting our
brains to to promote depression, right, I mean, they can
look even just at very small times, like between your periods,
(03:55):
and they're finding they are huge shifts and how a
woman is able to deal with stressors, and how that
that inability of deal might make them more depressed. You know, Kristen,
the first time I went to the guy of collegists,
actually she told me, um that if I ever felt depressed,
it was likely hormones just messing with my brain chemistry.
I mean, I wasn't depressed them, but she said, you know,
(04:16):
if you ever are, it's a very common thing in
women and molly. In addition to how hormones might be
affecting women's brains, it also research is also indicated that
men and women might simply deal with stressful events in
a different way. And this goes all the way back
to adolescents. UM studies have shown that the girls are
(04:36):
more likely than boys to continue feeling bad after experiencing
difficult situations or events, like we might sort of hold
onto things and process traumatic events longer than boys will.
Oh we love our process. Yes, we love to replay everything.
And this ability to ruminate just really works against us
because we can't let go. And when we have things
(04:58):
social stresses to ruminate about, then that gets even worse.
There was a study UM published by the APIA, the
American Psychological Association, that said that one of the things
women are stressing about, uh is that they have less
power in society and that this manifests itself and the
fact that we have more housework you know, we don't have, um,
you know, the strong roles in our jobs that men do.
(05:20):
And as a result of all this stress, we're just
more depressed. Yeah, and I don't know that that's kind
of an older study that was published I think in
n And once again I think that that might sort
of Oversimplifypresian. Yeah, it sounds weird when you say it
out loud, that just you know, society can make us
more depressed, like we're being held down by the man,
(05:43):
literally by the man, the not depressed man exactly. Um. So,
the fact of the matter is researchers really aren't entirely
sure why why women are more prone to depression than man.
I mean, it looks like there's a pretty strong link
between hormones. There's a different way that we we think
about traumatic events and how stressful events um can affect
(06:05):
us maybe longer than boys. But the good news is
there are things that we can do to treat it exactly.
That's going back to my good old kynecologist. She very
strongly advocated that, you know, a lot of women would
really benefit from a mild antidepressant. So antidepressants are very
commonly diagnosed. They work to um normalize these brain chemicals
(06:26):
that might be getting thrown off by hormones. Basically, the
hormones could be breaking havoc on our neurotransmitters, and antidepressant
works to stabilize those. These neurotransmitters are serotonin, um dope amine,
and so you've probably heard a lot of the common
names that women might take Prozac, Alexa, zoloft, paxel, alexa,
pro um these have side effects. Will probably get into
(06:48):
those in a later time. But you know, some women
experienced decreased sex drive. They can be tired and irritable.
It takes a while for them to kick in. You
need to take anti pressants for about three to four
weeks before you'll notice any different. But only some people
might not be too keen on the idea of taking antidepressants. Um.
For instance, I mean, all those those side effects that
(07:09):
that you just mentioned don't exactly sound like they would
make make anyone less depressed. But um, if you're not
interested in in inipressence, as studies have shown that incorporating
thirty minutes of physical activity into your day three to
five times a week does improve your mood and reduce
anxiety because that's a natural way to boost those serotonin
levels that we were talking about. And they're also popular
(07:31):
herbal remedies, well, I shouldn't say remedies, herbal alternatives such
as Saint John's work that has um shown to be
somewhat effective with mild depression, right, and there are other, um,
non medical things you can do just having sort of
a realistic mindset about it, knowing that depression, if you
are depressed, is not going to end in a day. Um.
(07:51):
Sometimes it helps to break large tasks that seem insurmountable
into very small tasks and just you know, go up
through it one piece at a time. UM, Spend time
with people who make you feel good about yourself. Right
and only, I think a good thing to keep in mind, Uh,
is this issue that you brought up about whether or
not women kind of ruminate over problems too much. I mean,
(08:12):
there might be something to the fact that we might
just need to like put a problem down at some point,
realize that maybe we can't solve it immediately, but we
have to move on keep functioning, and that could help
maybe with some of these these symptoms as well. Right,
and I think you know an important thing. The National
Institutent Mental Health provides some tips for people who have friends,
(08:34):
UM who are really depressed and they say, you know,
you need to listen to them talk about this problem
they're ruminating on. But then you kind of if they
need to provide a reality check, you know, if they're
so focused on this negative take the time to point
out to a depressed friend that you know, you've got this, this,
and this going for you and does it really matter
if you know that that and that is is you know,
out of whack, right. Um. That reminds me of one
(08:57):
of these studies comparing depression and lescent girls and boys,
and it found that more than se of depressed girls
experienced a difficult or stressful life event prior to a
depressive episode, as compared to only fourteen percent of boys.
So talking about something like that that happens in having
having room to share might help. So I guess the
takeaway message for me, Christen is that you know, if
(09:20):
you are a woman and do feel depressed, know that
there might be a reason for it, and that it's
just not something you have to live with. Like we said,
find a friend, talk it out, figure out what you're
not letting go of. Not to be too you know,
new ag therapy about it. But there are reasons why
we might be more depressed, and it helps to look
at the reasons as opposed to just wallowing and sadness, right,
and looking at those symptoms. If you are exhibiting five
(09:42):
or more, it might be it might be time to
go to the doctor. Yeah, don't be held down by
your hormones exactly. So if you want to learn more
about hormones, depression and everything in between. Um, You can
check out how depression works on how stuff works dot com,
and if you want to send me an Molly a
question or comment, feel free to send us an email
(10:04):
at mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com. For
more on thiss and thousands of other topics. Is it
how stuff works dot com brought to you by the
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
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