A woman has to perform a multifaceted role in her life – a spouse, mother, sister, daughter etc. Her family, career and above that she has to cope with the menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. As a woman she has a plenty of issues to handle. The worst thing to handle is depression. Statistics reveal that women get depression more than men do. There are many factors, which lead to the study of women and depression.
Depression is the chemical imbalance in the brain that makes it hard for the cells to communicate with each other. Some of the reasons for women to be depressed are death of a loved one, divorce or leaving home sweet home for higher studies or for a better prospect, taking certain medicines or using drugs or alcohol or due to certain illness etc.
Women with premenstrual syndrome are likely to be depressed, one week before her menstruation. For some women, who have delivered, few weeks after the delivery, they tend to have depression. It is also known as post delivery blues. Some women, who are having birth control pills, are prone to have depression and sudden increase in weight. The weight increase adds to the depression, as she feels she is not attractive anymore.
Some of the symptoms of depression are feeling sad or crying a lot, loosing interest or pleasure in some things, which you used to enjoy a lot — sex, feeling guilty, or worthless, feeling attracted towards death and suicide, sleeping too much or not sleeping at all, feeling tired and lethargic, loosing appetite, loosing weight, having trouble in paying attention, or in taking decisions, having pain and aches that don’t get treated easily and so on and so forth.
Biological Factors—the female body itself decides the development of depression. At various stages of depression, the hormones and other related factors influence it. Women, who are less educated and unemployed, are at a higher risk. Low status and high stress jobs, poor health, larger family sizes and single parenthood are also risk factors, which contribute to depression.
Research should be made to study each and every pattern of women and depression. Depression recurs in women, who recover from an initial episode. Insurance coverage should be given for the mental health problems of the women. Depression can be treated with counseling or antidepressant medicine or both. When you are in depression, it is better not to blame or isolate yourself. Avoid taking major decisions like divorce etc, sleeping too much or too little. Try the exercises and follow a healthy diet, while taking medicines. Call your doctor or local suicide crisis centre, in case you feel the same.
Antidepressants medicines can be taken in normal cases, but if a woman wants to become pregnant, consult with your doctor. In case, a woman accidentally becomes pregnant while she is on an antidepressant, it is recommended that the doctor be reported immediately.
In case of breast feeding while on antidepressants, inform the doctor and get his advice. If you are on hormone replacement therapy or oral birth control pills, it is advisable that they don’t take depression medicines. Women and depression are more related; however, it is important for you to beat the depression.
