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Why women are depression-prone
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Though the country claims to have taken rapid strides towards empowerment of women, their fundamental problems have not been addressed adequately. Depression is one among them, and emanates mostly from male chauvinism, coupled with growing domestic violence, besides the so-called family ethos and social values.
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Smita, 12, was a role model for all her classmates. She was a cute cheerful girl and excelled in every department, be it academic, sport, singing or any extra-curricular activity. She was the youngest of the siblings of an average middle class family. Her elder sister was married and her brother was in the middle of a professional course. Leading by example had somehow been a habit since her childhood until she faced the same personality change crisis that is encountered by all girls of her age when they attain puberty.
This sudden biological development not only had an influence on her physique but also stormed her little mind and impelled her to think ahead of her time. She suddenly developed a feeling of being omnipotent and wanted to imitate her married sister. Smita wanted to enjoy the freedom, life-style and the marital bliss in totality just like her elder sister. The thoughts provoked and ravaged her mind blowing away all the good traits that she possessed. She started losing interest in everything and within a year she stumbled from the pinnacle to the nadir in her class. She refused to go to the school where she once loved to go and was even reluctant to come out of her room. The constant nagging by her parents further converted her to a psychological wreck and she attempted twice to snuff the life out of her. The doctors confirmed that she was in a state of severe depression.
"School girls have many anxieties and conflicts due to their physical and emotional growth. Girls at the beginning of their adolescence manifest five times more anxiety than boys of the same age. Personality problems, such as shyness, inhibitions, jealousy, sensitivity and complaints, manifest more in girls. Internet and TV expose the younger generation to a western, liberal and explosive lifestyle in a society that refuses to shift from orthodox family values. This situation puts a lot of adolescent girls in a state of flux that normally leads to depression," says a clinical psychologist, Pragna Mitra.
U. Vindhya
Depression is the most prevalent mental illness among the women in the world. "Earlier biological transition was considered to be the main source for depression. Doctors and scientists concluded, `Anatomy is destiny' and identified three stages connected to this factor for women to go into a state of depression: puberty, reproductive and menopause. Puberty was considered because it reflected a sudden change in one's personality; reproductive stage was measured as the most sensitive stage as it had a direct impact in classifying a woman as a woman; and menopause was an area where most women felt a sense of insecurity that culminated into an absurd thought that they had lost the pride of being a woman as they were beyond the reproductive stage. But the latest studies indicate that depression among women are related to the roles, work area and the position they occupy both at home and in society rather than the biological factors," says the Head of the Department of Psychology in Andhra University, U. Vindhya.
Though the biological factor may still stand good for the adolescent stage, the Brown and Harris study has negated it when it pertains to older women. It has identified three other categories or stages that make a woman prone to depression: an unpaid woman just like the housewife; a woman who is engaged to take care of children and elderly people over a sustained period; and a woman's overall relationship with her husband. And if one analyses the above factors it becomes transparent that 90 per cent of Indian women are prone to such situations.
Radhika, 30, a post-graduate degree-holder and a banker, never dreamt that her marriage would be a disastrous experience. Though she married Ritesh, a marketing executive in a multinational, after a two-year long passionate courtship, today finds herself in a state of depression after four years of wedded life.
All the dreams that she had carefully woven around her marriage based on the `sweet nothings' of Ritesh that was made even more romantic by the waves on the Vizag beach, where they used to spend hours before marriage, crashed like a pack of cards, as Ritesh instantly got into his original male chauvinistic attire soon after marriage. The first thing he did was to make her abandon her lucrative job, as he wanted a typical docile housewife to take care of his aging parents and the child to come. She was delivered of a child within a year of marriage, and the four walls of the flat, the wailing child, the nagging in-laws and the pressing demands of her husband and one-time lover became her world. She suddenly found that her independence and the very existence as a woman in danger. The chirpy Radhika began to sulk and she even began to hate the things that she used to like - food and laughter - but nobody noticed the change. And on a fateful day she had an overdose of sleeping pills. It was only then that they realised the problem.
Though Ritesh could save her from that suicidal attempt, the doctors diagnosed that she was suffering from a mental illness called depression. Today she is a victim of delusions and hallucinations.
Pragna Mitra
Such cases are growing rapidly not only on a national scale, but also in Visakhapatnam. "The City of Destiny is fast catching up with the cosmopolitan culture where women are educated and like to have an identity of their own. But once that is threatened, coupled with other corresponding factors, the possibility of slipping into depression is very strong. Women in general face family and societal restrictions everywhere and they are treated as species that are more emotional than strong-willed. The very commonly used phrase `don't cry like a girl' to stop a weeping male child explains it. Women in India are put under tremendous pressure to fit into the traditional female roles and when this ideology clashes with their own independent thinking, depression sets in," says Dr. Vindhya.
The state of depression is a very dangerous syndrome that can ruin any person even before one realizes it. A minor conflict in the mind is capable of sowing the seed that can germinate over a period of time to cripple or even smother the life out of an individual. The basic symptom of depression is reflected when a person starts losing interest in everything. Considering it to be a general illness, it is normally neglected. And that ignorance spells the doom. It can lead to a total withdrawal virtually paralysing the patient. It can impel one to take the drastic step of suicide or harm others. Severe depression at times can even lead to the state of schizophrenia, if not treated early.
Mental illness can open the floodgates for numerous diseases and knowing the fact that women are prone to it, hardly anything can be done to control it. Even the ratio of access to the hospital for mental care available to women is much less compared to the men. A little understanding and support at the right time can work miracles. It's high time that we gave them a chance. (The original names of the victims have been changed to safeguard their identity)
SUMIT BHATTACHARJEE
(Next week the focus will be on how to get over the state of depression with special suggestions from Sondra Letoff, professor of psychology in the City University of New York, and Bernard Salzman, professional psychiatrist, and V.S. Bose, professor of psychology in Andhra University)
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