Over the years I’ve heard the phrase, "women suffer from anxiety disorder twice as much as men" many times. However, there was never an explanation attached to such statements, so today I wanted to present a few ideas about the possible reasons for this.
Based on all the research information I reviewed it turns out that women having double the rate of anxiety disorders as men is not just a catch phrase, but a statistical fact. And its not just restricted to one type of anxiety disorder either. Women have higher rates of GAD, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, Post traumatic stress disorder and different types of phobias.
Researchers believe that women suffer from higher rates of anxiety for several reasons. But as we’ll see, the basis of this gender difference is mostly rooted in biological and societal factors.
Hormonal Differences
Researchers have found that sex hormones can cause havoc when it comes to anxiety disorders in women. Although the mechanisms are not clearly understood, hormones related to premenstrual cycles for example are thought to affect a woman’s mood and reaction to stress. Fluctuation in hormonal levels could be the main cause for the anxiety gender gap.
Cultural Pressure
The longest running myth in history is that women’s lives are less stressful than men’s. Cultural expectations for women to take care of everything and then some more can cause a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety in all women.
Women are expected in many countries to overlook their own needs and cater to the needs of their families first. Add to that the pressure of work, career progression, and other social pressures and you have a recipe for a more stressed and emotionally strained person.
Openness
Women are also more willing to talk about their emotional and mental well being. It’s believed that women simply go to the doctor more to report incidents of anxiety and panic. This in turn has an effect on statistical data that suggest higher rates of anxiety in the female population.
Sexual Abuse and Violence
Sexual abuse and violence in early childhood have also been identified as another possible reason why women suffer higher rates of anxiety disorders. Researchers believe that women simply react more strongly to incidences of sexual abuse and assault which can create a vulnerability to anxiety disorder in later life.
Obviously there is also the genetic basis of anxiety disorders that men and women are all exposed to. This is perhaps the most important part of developing any anxiety disorder. But unlike men, women even experience some of the most hated anxiety symptoms at higher rates.
Symptoms such as heart pounding, shortness of breath, and faintness have been found to affect women more than men. Most of the theories put forth to explain this phenomena are related to sex hormones but to date there is no known reason for this.
Women are also more likely to suffer from a higher rate of comorbidity. This is when a person has more than one type of mental ailment at the same time. Other mental difficulties like depression are found more often in women that also have at least one type of anxiety disorder.
One of the more interesting studies done on anxiety disorder and gender differences showed that women who were more religiously active were three times less likely to have an anxiety disorder. Although according to the study this may be related more to social networks built in the church and not religion per se.
The development of an anxiety disorder is highly complex and poorly understood by science. However, there are strides being made in the scientific literature to try and explain not only anxiety disorders, but also how they affect men and women alike. This will hopefully lead to new innovations to help anxiety sufferers better manage and perhaps one day heal all forms of nervous illness.
References:
1. Huliq.com
2. ADAA.org
Please help support this blog by shopping at "Anxiety Mart" . All purchases are made directly from Amazon.com and the proceeds help fund this site. Thank you!
Leave a Reply