Women and Anxiety Disorders
Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders (except specific phobias) as men. Consider possible evolutionary, social, and biological (include all three) explanations for this in your paper.
Anxiety disorders are becoming more and more apparent in our society and considered in the medical sphere as crucial as physical diseases. The question would be who more likely men or women are to suffer from an anxiety disorder, and if there is any difference, why that is?
Much research has conducted in various ways to cover as much information about the variety of anxieties prevailing nowadays amongst both men and women and in all age groups. However, recent studies have shown how a female is more likely to suffer from an anxiety disorder than a male.
There are many factors behind this growing belief amongst scientists and doctors that range from social, biological, and evolutionary. They all can give a coherent and comprehensive explanation of why women should be more aware of how anxiety disorders work.
Women in their evolution process have developed more meta-cognitive beliefs about the uncontrollability of worry and how it is crucial to avoid it to any extent. In contrast, men had little if no significant evolutionary impact on their meta-cognition mechanisms.
Socially, women are always expected to be the best version of themselves, not only physically but in handling household matters and interacting with others. This pressure has significantly increased with Social Media putting women in a critical situation regarding anxiety disorders.
The third factor is a biological one. It revolves mainly around hormones that are responsible for the weakening of women’s immune system toward all sorts of anxieties, as opposed to Men who find in testosterone a proven source of calmness and positive ideas cultivator. Menses has share amongst the reasons why a woman is twice as likely to suffer from an anxiety disorder as a man. It is no secret the effects it produces in women making them more vulnerable and sensitive. There are also other factors except for the hormonal imbalance, such as stress, genetic background, and physical conditions.
Having all three factors; the social, evolutionary, and biological factors, we can conclude that women are more likely to suffer from anxiety than men.
References
Adaa.org. 2015. Facts & Statistics | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: Author.
Hooley, J., Butcher, J., Nock, M., and Mineka, S., 2017. Abnormal Psychology. 17th ed. Boston: Pearson.
In Emmelkamp, P. M. G., & In Ehring, T. (2014). The Wiley handbook of anxiety disorders.