Women’s Mental Health Issues That Get More Pronounced With Age : The reality is that women’s mental health issues get worse as they age. This is because more mental health issues tend to affect women than men. In addition, many of these issues become more severe in older women compared to younger women.
Here are some of the most common mental health issues that affect women and how they change over time:
Depression
Depression is one of the most common mental health issues that affect women in their later years. As per the CDC, depression can affect between 1% to 5% of the older population. It rises to 13.5% of those who require home healthcare and to 11.5% of hospitalized older patients.
Depression can be difficult to spot because it can look like other symptoms like feeling sad, tired, or wanting to sleep a lot. You should remember that:
- Depression is not just feeling down for a few days. It’s an illness that causes severe sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness for at least two weeks or even more.
- Depression can cause anxiety and other mental health problems. For example, Women with depression are twice as likely to have panic attacks as those without it. People with depression are also more likely to develop substance abuse problems.
Elderly people with depression are three times more likely to attempt suicide than those without depression or other conditions such as diabetes or cancer. Therefore, it is more important for older people to find a therapist and seek treatment when they are depressed.
Mood Swings
In older women, menopause can cause mood swings. As per Medical News Today, menopause starts between 40 to 58 years in women in developed countries. In America, the average age for menopause is 52 years.
You may feel like you’re going crazy, but mood swings happen to everyone. You might notice that your emotions change quickly, and you have a hard time managing them. For example, you might quickly go from feeling fine to feeling sad or angry.
You can manage your mood swings by eating healthy foods and staying physically active. It’s also important to get enough sleep. If you’re tired, it can be harder for your brain to regulate emotions correctly. The most important thing in mood swings is to talk about how things make you feel with someone else who cares about you.
Anxiety
It’s normal to feel anxious at times. Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time, whether it’s about a big test or an upcoming vacation. In most cases, being anxious is a healthy response that can help us get through difficult situations and prepare us for the future.
However, if your anxiety becomes overwhelming or causes you to avoid important everyday activities, it may signal a mental health disorder like generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD is characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry about everyday problems for at least six months and usually longer than that.
As per the ADAA, GAD affects 6.8 million U.S. Adults, or 3.1% of the population, with women representing two third of those affected by the condition.
OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by obsessions and compulsions that take up significant amounts of time, cause distress or interfere with your daily life.
Obsessions are recurring thoughts, impulses, or urges that cause anxiety. They may be frightening, such as worries that you or someone you care about will be seriously harmed. They may be rituals, like constantly checking that the stove is off, or they may be both.
Rituals are actions people feel compelled to perform in response to their obsessions. They can include excessive hand washing, counting items over and over again, and hoarding food items out of fear of running out when there’s plenty left in the house (among other things).
While anyone can develop OCD at any age, it often begins between ages 15 and 25. This makes young adults especially vulnerable since many have not yet established themselves financially and socially outside their family homes. The condition tends toward more severe symptoms than others when it occurs later in life.
PTSD
As you age, your ability to recover from traumatic events may become impaired. It’s not clear why this happens, but it could have something to do with cognitive decline and/or changes in brain structure that occur as we get older. These changes could make it harder for older adults to cope with stressful events, putting them at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
People who have PTSD experience:
- Flashbacks-replaying traumatic memories over and over again in your mind’s eye
- Nightmares- having trouble sleeping because of disturbing dreams related to the trauma
- Avoidance behaviors -distancing yourself from others and avoiding things that remind you of the trauma
Conclusion
Mental health issues are common in both men and women, but some can get more pronounced with age. As we’ve discussed, depression and anxiety have been shown to peak during midlife for many people.
However, other mental illnesses may be less severe during this time of life. This includes substance abuse problems (which increase most significantly during late adolescence and early adulthood) and bipolar disorder (which is diagnosed most often in the late teens or early 20s).
So what happens when these conditions occur later in life? What are the warning signs? And what can you do if they become serious enough that they interfere with functioning at home, work, or school? It’s important to know the answers to these questions because mental illness affects so many adults and it’s not just limited to those who are young.
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