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