Summary
Women’s health problems draw the attention of society more and more often nowadays. Depression is one of the most prevalent health problems among females, predominantly middle-aged. The multitude of investigations and surveys show that they suffer from depression twice more than men. The significant susceptibility to depression can be connected with neurobiological and psycho-social peculiarities. However, it should be noted that women are willing to seek treatment more frequently than men. Depression, like any other mental illness, turned out to be a specific reaction to the critical and extreme living conditions and environment. This assignment is intended to identify the cause-and-effect connection between the frequency of depression and the middle age period for women and illustrate the process of manifestation of depression.
Symptoms, Reasons, and Phases of Depression
People should remember that the experience of depression is uniquely personal, frightening, and quite often bewildering for the person concerned (Martin et al., 2021). Unpleasant conditions or a bad mood can frequently happen to everyone, which is quite a common situation in today’s life. It is essential to identify depressive disorders in case serious mental problems occur. If unsatisfactory conditions start to take precedence over health and lifestyle, it will be necessary to handle the situation. Depressed mood symptoms are common among middle-aged women (Cano, 2017). Many females, burdened with various duties and responsibilities, can at first ignore and even overlook the symptoms, taking them for granted, such as regular fatigue or disorders of sleep-in manifestations (Duncan et al., 2019).
Some women start to self-medicate themselves, for example, with popular magnesium, which demonstrates positive effects during the treatment of depression (Martino et al., 2020). It is better to ask for professional treatment if it is evident that the problem comes out of control.
People should pay attention to the following symptoms, which last more than two weeks:
- lack of motivation, unwillingness to perform habitual actions or even go to work;
- mental self-injury, the groundless feeling of guilt, lowered self-esteem;
- a disorder of sleep in various manifestations, appetite disorder;
- total lack of energy, morning fatigue, inability to perform hygienic procedures;
- lethargy — intellectual and physical;
- reduction of sexual activity up to complete refusal if intimate relations;
- irritability worries about beloved once commonly without any cause;
- hypochondria, mistrustfulness.
Middle-aged women’s lives are overloaded by various affairs, problems, and responsibilities. Such a lifestyle can cause depression when in one or several areas of activities, some issues appear. There are several physiological causes that can influence the development of depression, such as frequent or constant stress, breakups, divorces, the loss of a beloved person, childhood psychological traumas, feelings of being unwanted or alone, and general awareness of the inadequacy of one’s life. Pathophysiological reasons should always be taken into consideration. Depression can be caused by hormonal disbalance, chronic fatigue, heart attacks and strokes, head traumas, or intoxication by various substances, including alcohol. Depression in females may be commonly caused by not one but a complex of personal reasons (Lips, 2017). Several scientists put forward the theory about the reconnection between air pollution and mental system problems, including depression (Kioumourtzoglou, et al., 2017). According to various personal characteristics of depression for every person, the investigations on possible causes are still successfully conducted.
Depression in Middle-Aged Women during Hormonal Restructuring
One of the reasons for determining the frequency of depression detection exactly among middle-aged women is hormonal restructuring and its connection with the nervous system. Several studies show the influence of menstrual cycle phases and periods of hormonal restructuring in women on the occurrence and course of mental disorders, primarily depression.
Premenstrual Tension
A woman’s bodily and mental states and vice versa depend on the menstrual cycle phase. Premenstrual tension is a symptom — complex of the vegetative-vascular, metabolic-energy and mental disorder occurring 2-14 days before menstruation and disappearing after the beginning of the next cycle (Martin et al., 2020). More than 50 % of women with major depressive disorder experience an increase in the severity of symptoms during the premenstrual phase (Martin et al., 2020).
Depression During Climacterium
The period of menopause is considered a critical phase in a woman’s life. Climacteric is a physiological period in a woman’s life during which the evolutionary processes dominate the reproductive system, on the background of age-related changes in the body. It is quite a long process, reflected in women’s semantic mental state, and depends not only on biological factors but also on psychological, social, and cultural ones. During the menopausal transition, the risk for an episode of major depression is 4 to 6 for women who have had depression previously (Kornstein & Clayton, 2017).
Depression is always traumatic for the concerned person, and it is necessary to receive professional help as soon as possible. Women at risk should be more attentive to their attitude to mental health and prevent the causes of disorder if possible. Despite genetic, physiological, and other hardly influenced factors, there is a risk of psychological reasons for depression. In this case, it will be wonderful to receive the attention and love from beloved people to prevent the illness.
References
Cano, A. (Ed.). (2017). Menopause: A Comprehensive Approach. Springer.
Duncan, D. T., Kawachi, I. & Redline, S. (Eds.). (2019). The Social Epidemiology of Sleep. Oxford University Press.
Kioumourtzoglou, M. A., Power, M.C., Hart, J. E., Okereke, O.I., Counll, B.A., Laden, F. & Weisskopf, M. G. (2017). The Association Between Air Pollution and Onset of Depression Among Middle-Aged and Older Women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 185(9), 801-809. Web.
Kornstein, S.G., & Clayton, A.H. (Eds.). (2017). Women’s Mental Health. Elsevier.
Lips, H. M. (2017). A New Psychology of Women: Genders, Culture, and Ethnicity (4th Ed.). Waveland Press.
Martin, R. C., Hunter, L., Patel, V. B., Preedy, V. R., & Rajendram, R. (Eds.). (2020). The Neuroscience of Depression: Genetics, Cell Biology, Neurobiology, Behavior, and Diet. Elsevier.
Martino, G., Langher, V., Cazzato, V. & Vacario, C.M. (Eds.). (2020). Psychological Factors as Determinations of medical Conditions (2nd Ed.). Frontiers Media SA.