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Women and Depressive Episodes

More Than Just Being Sad

If you’ve ever been diagnosed with depression or know someone who has, you realize it’s more than being unable to get over a sad mood. Depression is a psychological disorder, which can have a severe impact not only on your mood, mind, and behavior, but on your body. There are many possible causes of depression, including genetics, biology, and environmental and social factors. The following are symptoms of major depression:

a persistent sad or “empty” mood.

A lack of interest in all or almost all pleasurable activities.

These two symptoms must occur all day and nearly every day for at least two weeks, without any other physical cause. At least five other symptoms are also present in someone with major depression.

When there is a pattern of major depressive episodes at specific times of the year (e.g., in the late fall/winter or late spring/summer months), a person has seasonal affective disorder.

You’re Not Alone in This

If you have depression, you’re not alone — although you may feel as if you are. Depression is a serious condition that affects more than 17 million people in the United States. And a lot of those people are women, who become depressed almost twice as often as men. Women tend to be at higher risk for depression for a variety of reasons, which may be genetic, biological, environmental, and/or social.

For example, women may have a biological tendency toward depression because of the way their reproductive system works. This may explain the strong association between mood symptoms and premenstrual syndrome or premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Some women suffer from postpartum depression, a type of depression that occurs after childbirth and is much more serious than the “baby blues” that many women experience. Hormonal differences might also be why women are more likely to have seasonal affective disorder — episodes of major depression that occur only during the winter or summer months.

A self-assessment will help you understand depression.

Everyone’s Depression is Different

A depression will be as unique as you are. National Institute of Mental Health research shows that “no two people become depressed in the same way.” How severe symptoms are and how long they last will vary from person to person. For some, symptoms appear in only short episodes, while others have symptoms for extended periods, particularly if they don’t seek treatment. Fortunately, there are self-help measures and effective treatments, including antidepressant medications and/or psychotherapy, available for depression.