Depression Among Women

This research describes depression among women in the middle years.

Depression is an illness like kidney or heart disease. It is a mental state in which grief or anxiety or "agonized feelings" predominate. In Hippocrates time, the fourth century B.C., it was known as melancholia, literally "depression," a despondent condition thought to be one of the four temperaments of man (Cammer, 1969, p. 16). Today, we view depression as a product of mental, physical and social forces, which adversely change a person's behavior, feeling state and thoughts.

Physically, depression may include such symptoms as nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, headaches, stomachaches, or abnormal neural functions. In extremity, it can result in a nervous breakdown or psychotic break. Under most conditions, it is experienced as severe anxiety, exhaustion, tensional energy, and stress. It often represents fear and anger buried under layers of maladaptive behavior.

Depression in women comes from many sources. One traditional source is dissatisfaction with approaching old age. By middle age, the woman reaches menopause. She can no longer bear children. If her identity was bound up with child-rearing, she may no longer feel valued as a human being, and a crisis may ensue (Lee and Casebier, 1971, 108).

Since an older generation viewed sexuality as "work and duty," (Lee and Casebier, p. 125) often repressing sensory feelings or "libido," the middle aged women sometimes becomes sexually unresponsive,

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igh social status in most areas of the country. In other words, if they accept the social concept that they are what the culture evaluates them to be, they no longer feel self-worth. The classic model of neurotic depression that these women experience is that obsessive-compulsive pattern. This depressive becomes rigid and perfectionistic. Her way is the only correct way. Enormous amounts of energy go into her perfectionism. She cannot adapt to change. She becomes obsessed, for example, with keeping her home spotless. She becomes carping and irritable. She mistrusts everyone, even possibly becoming paranoid and projecting her anger onto other people because she cannot accept it as her own. Her rigidity chokes off any outlet for her self-expression. Nervous energy becomes exhausted. She is continuously tired. The final result is severe depression. Another model of neurotic depression in the middle years is the fearful woman. Every little ache and pain becomes magnified making her hypocondriac about her health. She shuts herself up and withdraws form social contact. She worries about everything. If her husband goes on a business trip, she is sure his plane will crash. Psychosomatic symptoms appear first,

Category: Psychology - D