As a woman, juggling many roles is a stressful business, which may be why your mental wellbeing is more at risk that your male counterpart. This is according to Professor Daniel Freeman, of the University of Oxford, and co-author Jason Freeman, a writer and editor, whose new book, The Stressed Sex: Uncovering the Truth about Men, Women, and Mental Health, discloses that women have higher rates of depression, panic disorder, phobias, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders.
According to Professor Freeman, a professor of clinical psychology, a Medical Research Council (MRC) Senior Clinical Fellow, in the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry and an honorary consultant clinical psychologist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, the popular belief is that overall rates of mental health problems in men and women are the same, ‘but the evidence shows that this is simply not the case.’
He continued, ‘Given that domestic work is undervalued, and considering that women tend to be paid less, find it harder to advance in a career, have to juggle multiple roles, and are bombarded with images of apparent female “perfection”, it would be surprising if there weren’t some emotional and psychological cost. These are the kind of pressures that can leave women feeling as if they’ve somehow failed; as if they don’t have what it takes to be successful; as if they’ve been left behind. And those kinds of feelings can lead to psychological problems like anxiety and depression.’
‘Overall, in the current environment women are bearing the brunt of mental health problems,’ Professor Freeman explained. ‘But let’s be clear, even for problems that are more common in women – such as anxiety and depression – they also afflict very significant numbers of men. So it would be wrong to categorise mental health troubles as essentially a female problem. Rates of mental health problems are too high in both genders.’
Professor Freeman argued that wellness experts need to break the taboo around gender differences in mental health in order to tackle disorders more successfully in future. He noted, ‘Given the extent of the burden on society and individuals alike, understanding what causes mental health problems, and thus being better placed to prevent and treat it, is vitally important, but our ability to do that is going to be hampered if we assume that gender isn’t significant.’