Depression among girls and women - when will this stop being treated like news?

[redqueen]

When will people stop pretending the answer isn't blatantly obvious?

The results of the latest study made the news this month:

Teen girls twice as likely to suffer depression than boys, research shows

...

The study's lead author Professor George Patton, says it is still unclear why girls had more problems.

"It may be something to do with biology. There may be a predisposition of this kind in girls," he said.

...

"In about half of the cases in boys who had an episode of anxiety and depression -emotional problems - during the teens, it continued into their 20s," he said.

"For girls, the continuity rate was actually a bit higher. About two-thirds of girls who had problems of this kind continued into their twenties."

...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-16/teen-girls-twice-as-likely-to-suffer-depression-than-boys2c-re/5203626

The thing is, this isn't news.

http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/mood-disorders-teenage-girls-anxiety-depression

It is interesting to note that before adolescence, rates of depression are about the same among girls and boys. Things begin to shift between the ages of eleven and thirteen.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/09/22/why-do-women-get-depressed-more-than-men/

This one at least mentions the social aspect:
http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/depression_in_adolescence_does_gender_matter


We have to stop fooling ourselves. We are raising our girls in a world which treats them as less-than, and as the sex class.

Seriously, what the hell else do we expect?

We need more radical feminists. We need more people calling out the everyday reinforcements of patriarchal culture, because it is long past time to attack the root of misogyny at its source.

Yes, it will irritate people. Yes, you will lose friends. Yes, you will face significant resistance. But we have to push harder.

Those of you who have been on this site for years have seen progress just in our little microcosm. Someone posted, aghast, about the possibility of encountering someone who would tell a nursing mother to feed her infant in a restroom. Remember seeing those sentiments here? Remember seeing the blowback a few years ago when rape culture was mentioned? Things aren't perfect but they are getting better, and that means we need to push harder.

Sorry for the rant. I just saw that 'news' about the rates of depression in teenage girls and it set me off. FFS, how long ago did Dr. Pipher write Reviving Ophelia? Come on!

[Demeter]

1. Exactly so

Situational depression, when the situation doesn't change and your best efforts can't make it, becomes chronic. What did they expect? That we would LOVE being shat upon?

[redqueen]

3. I don't understand why Reviving Ophelia didn't result in widespread awareness.

I don't understand why Miss Representation didn't, either.

I just hope all these efforts to expose the ways this system self-perpetuates, and the myriad harms it causes, bear significant results, ASAP.

[cinnabonbon]

2. It might be uncomfortable and a little painful in the beginning

I think of it as growing pains. The community grows from the new ideas, and we might improve ourselves from the knowledge, so every member of the group can benefit from it.

It's the same problem when we talk about white privilege. There will always be push-back before acceptance. But without the push, nothing will happen. Despite what history books say, dominant groups do not give oppressed groups right. The minority has to fight for it.

At the very least we should stand up for the ideals that are important to us, so girls growing up in this broken society can see that there's an alternative to quietly accepting that in this twisted game, they are not considered "players" but prey.

[redqueen]

4. Definitely women should call it out in front of girls. Every time.

It sucks. During adolescence, more than at any other time of life, it's so much easier to just go along to get along. It's harder to choose to face these harsh truths head-on. But it pays off in so many ways.

[cinnabonbon]

5. I was lucky and had a very feminist mother

She didn't let fools get away with anything. It is only looking back that I can see how she shaped my self-worth by never letting anyone insult my gender, subtle or otherwise. I owe her a lot, because I realize that standing up wasn't easy.

It's definitely harder to stand up against this violent culture when you're a teenager. It's like painting a target on your back - at least in the beginning. But if it's a good cause, other people are going to join us because they will understand that they can't stand idly by. I think it says a lot about a person that they dare to speak up when others doesn't.

[redqueen]

6. Yep, as my teen girls get older

they realize more and more that I'm not just making this stuff up.

[cinnabonbon]

8. They're lucky to have a mother like you.

[redqueen]

9. Aww, thanks

[niyad]

7. thank you for pointing this out. definitely in the "duhhhhh, ya think???" category

[redqueen]

10. Right?

This insistence on feigned confusion over the issue is infuriating.

[BainsBane]

11. It's far more complicated than that

Firstly, there are genetic components to mental illnesses. Bipolar and schizophrenia are more prevalent among males, and both most commonly present in late adolescence or early adulthood. Males are also more likely to commit suicide, which is of course the most severe manifestation of mental illness.

In terms of societal factors, Major Depression is most common in the poorest countries of the world. Poor women are more likely to develop depression and are more likely to stay poor than those who don't suffer from Depression. A few years ago, the WHO identified Depression as one of the world's most prevalent illnesses and charted it's linkages to severe poverty.

Additionally, diagnosing children with mental illness is fraught with controversy. Until recently, most psychiatrists did not believe it appropriate to diagnose children with these disorders. As a result, you would see few children diagnosed with many of the most common adult psychiatric disorders and instead a huge number of kids diagnosed as ADHD (attention deficit) and/or EBD (Emotionally and Behaviorally Disturbed). Boys tend to act out when Depressed, while girls more often turn inward, which means that illness among girls was less likely to be observed by school authorities, doctors, etc. There is nothing simple about understanding or treating mental illness, and the popular press is that last place to go to learn anything it.

[redqueen]

12. What is simple is that this imbalance is true all over the world.

This isn't about mental illness in general, so why you're introducing issues like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and suicide is beyond me.

Back to the topic - if you want to chalk up this consistent imbalance to biology that's your opinion. I'll stick with the idea that grasping at straws for any other explanation when the imbalance starts with the onset of adolescence is choosing to ignore the most obvious explanation. But then prescribing pills and billing for therapists sessions is much easier than addressing the patriarchy and the resultant misogyny in society.

[BainsBane]

13. The issue is depression. It's in the title of your OP

Last edited Fri Jan 31, 2014, 05:18 AM - Edit history (1)

Bipolar is one type of depression; unipolar is a second. Suicide is part of depression. It is not separate. It is what makes mood disorders lethal. The fact that you say "why bring up bipolar and suicide" in a discussion of depression makes clear to me you know very little about the subject. The disorders are called Bipolar Depression and Unipolar Depression (aka Major Depression). Suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts are among the criteria that make up a diagnosis of depression. It's like saying feelings of worthlessness or trouble sleeping are separate from depression, when they are part of the disease. Or it is like saying why bring up death when we're talking about cancer. Cancer kills, and so does Depression. The illnesses are understood as starting at adolescence because diagnosis starts at adolescence; psychiatrists rarely diagnose children with Depression but have recently begun to rethink that approach.

It is not my OPINION that depression is biological. It is a scientific FACT. Environmental stressors play a role but so does genetics. The brains of depressives, whether bipolar or unipolar, are physically different from the general population, as is evident in brain scans. The stressors may indeed be gendered--as poverty is, btw. Whatever you think on the fly really means nothing if it isn't substantiated with research, and it appears to me you don't care enough to look. I've suffered from Major Depression most of my life and have had to educate myself in order to survive. Your post trivializes serious and life threatening diseases, diseases that kill people, and a disease that has caused havoc in my own life.

[redqueen]

14. I stopped reading after you accused me of knowing "very little about the subject"

Your assumption that you're the only authority on depression because you have dealt with it is amusing. Did you not consider that other people had suffered from depression as well?

Here's one more comment before I'm done talking to you, just to spell it out - since you seem to need that done for you: The rates of depression before adolescence among male and female children are about the same up until adolescence. I know that you know this because its been mentioned repeatedly in this very thread - oh and from all your research, too.

And again, they diverge - that is, the number of girls suffering from depression doubles - around adolescence.

Now put those two facts together with what you just said re: biological & environmental stressors. I'll stop spelling it out now. Hopefully you get it now. If not that's just too damn bad.

Also cute how you just stopped mentioning schizophrenia. Good luck with the whole authority figure routine in the future.