Among other significant neurological conditions, mental illness constitutes about 40% of the world's framework that regulates rates of disability and disease. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), research states that gender roles involving men, women, and individuals that associate themselves with being non-binary communicate with the broader society through societal constructs, functions, and responsibilities. Socioeconomic status, power, and differences in roles (biological, emotional, cultural diversity, or lifestyles) tend to be influenced by contrasts in the intensity of mental disorders diagnosed, the prognosis of the illness and its treatment. The reaction and response of the organisations that govern the health quarter include mental health professionals and the community in its entirety, these groups work towards bridging the gap or disparity that lies between concluding a diagnosis and preparing a plan of action to reach target goals in psychotherapy involving a wider population with divergent gender groups.[1]
A 2018 study illustrated how social support and family dynamics play a significant role in investigating gender differences surrounding mental health concerns and disorders. The experiment was administered to an adolescent and young adult population from Belgium specifically ranging from 15-25 years. The research is supported with evidence from a 2008 and 2013 health interview survey. The findings of this study indicated through the use of questionnaires measuring psychological distress-anxiety and depression and a statistical multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) concluded that adolescents with an experience of childhood trauma, repressed emotions, social withdrawal, self-esteem and self-identity crisis and poor primary support social structures report increased gradients of distress at an emotional level (inclusive of depression and anxiety). [2]
Females revealed a significantly high score of experiencing mental illness and distress at frequent intervals in comparison with males who reported having a strong social support structure. Gender disparity was poignant in how common mental disorders like anxiety and depression were diagnosed. The absence of psycho-educating the community about mental health and concerns that constitute it in addition to stigma that circles it and its prognosis were major factors that contributed to a decline in social support. These differences were later analysed from an age range perspective in addition to interpreting a gender category. For instance, the probability of adolescent males (15-19 years) experiencing psychological distress would be less frequent in time and intensity as compared to young adult males within an age category of 20-25 years.
Researchers indicate that the correlation between gender disparity and mental illness is directly proportional to how individuals streamline their emotions. Emotions can be internalised and externalised, this is significant in understanding how differences in gender and the gap that is created as a result can be the major cause of mental illness and the delay in observing the onset of symptoms associated with disorders specifically depression and bipolar-disorder can affect their diagnosis respectively.
Women diagnosed with anxiety disorders like Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) makes it highly probable for them to internalise emotions already repressed over a long interval of time, this can result in a highly chronic outcome like experiencing depression related symptoms, feelings of abandonment and social withdrawal. On the contrary, men experience emotions that are externalised through outcomes and spontaneous responses or reactions to triggers faced (these triggers may vary according to the nature of event the individual encounters), such as feelings of compulsivity, aggression, violence (root outcomes attributed to domestic abuse and substance abuse primarily) and socially maladaptive behaviours (behaviours that are structurally inappropriate according to the individual’s current developmental stage).[3]
In conclusion, although coping mechanisms and strategies cannot be structured using a gender-neutral approach as the assessments surrounding risk and the factors associated with causing mental illness and a delay in effective diagnosis and subsequent treatment are partly responsible in evolving a gender specific outlook in this field of research.[4] What can be done is changing the way we look at gender as a whole and the differences that are created by us emotionally and physically through the allocation of specific roles given to particular genders. If we create and establish an unconventional thought process and construct a flexible social environment, disparity can be eliminated from understanding how different communities approach mental illness, its awareness and the stigma around its diagnosis and treatment.
References
[1] Gender and Health. (2002). Gender and Mental Health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/gender
[2] Van Droogenbroeck, F., Spruyt, B. & Keppens, G. (2018). Gender differences in mental health problems among adolescents and the role of social support: results from the Belgian health interview surveys 2008 and 2013. BMC Psychiatry, 18(6). doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1591-4
[3] American Psychological Association. (2011). An Invariant Dimensional Liability Model of Gender Differences in Mental Disorder Prevalence; Evidence from a National Sample. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/08/mental-illness
[4] Afifi, M. (2007). Gender differences in mental health. Singapore Med. Journal, 48(5), 385-391.
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