Women who are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and new CDC data shows

SASHA PEZENIK, ABC News

(New York)-American mental health crisis was already imminent before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed systemic inequality and unprecedented stress levels to the limit.

New data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics, which surveyed approximately 32,000 adults and 6,800 children in more than 33,000 households, show that women will have more depression and anxiety symptoms than men in 2019. It is likely to be experienced and promotes mental health by receiving counseling, treatment, and taking prescription medications.

White adults were more likely to receive mental health treatment at the same time, while white and black adults reported experiencing similar symptoms of depression. Hispanic adults were least likely to receive mental health treatment.

“That’s a clear gap we’ve noticed,” NCHS study co-author and health statistician Emily Terlizzi told ABC News. “These are good benchmarks before COVID and I would like to see now if they will change in 2020.”

Who needs help and who gets it is increasingly needed in the event of a global health emergency. Experts say the solution must first address the structural imbalances of those who feel they have the right to seek support.

“Even outside the pandemic, women seem to have a unique vulnerabilities to depression,” said Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine, who specializes in women’s mental health. Stated. “I think women have more permission to say,’Hey, I need help.’ That framework exists for women in ways that make it much more difficult for men to do. But at the same time, there are still gaps in our mental health system. “

According to experts, the black and brown communities are facing centuries of rising, especially towards health equality.

“You’re not supposed to tell strangers your secrets,” New Jersey-based Haitian American video producer Alisha Panfir, 34, told ABC News. “There is such a taboo around therapy, a space that is vulnerable, a sense of weakness, and in fact the exact opposite, but we have not been given the language to do it. We have that grace. Was not allowed. “

“Many of the underlying structures of psychology, and even the foundations of mental health, have been blamed and provide no support to meet the needs of the color community. Beyond that. And that’s just a very foreign concept, “Atlanta-based clinical psychologist Dr. Joyharden Bradford told ABC News.

She founded Therapy for Black Girls, a blog aimed at creating space for black women to talk about mental health.

“We are convinced that it shouldn’t break if it’s hurt,” Bradford said. “So we need to teach the color community that it’s okay if it’s okay-more importantly, understand when it is and actively seek support.”

According to experts, normalizing mental health treatments and providing them to those in need begins with embodying a group of emotional glossaries that have long been out of conversation. Women are more likely to experience the symptoms of depression, but they are also more likely to admit it. Black men may not be ready to seek help, even if they feel the need.

Dr. Leader Walker, a professor of psychology and author at the University of Houston A legitimate guide to black mental health, Told ABC News.

“And depending on how you evaluate depression, you can miss it, for example, in the case of men,” Walker said. “And again, men tend not to use emotional language or reveal women’s feelings like women do.”

Also, the symptoms may be unique. Mental and physical pain is a sly way of indexing emotions that we are not comfortable with.

“Anxiety can manifest itself as a headache or abdominal pain, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be associated with mental health,” Bradford said. “We don’t want to show a weak world, so we can even have a hard time recognizing ourselves when we reach the limits.”

Further stress on the group currently the most vulnerable to the virus itself, the most vulnerable to its socio-economic impact, and the least likely to receive mental health support in the global crisis mode. There is.

“Pre-COVID, we’ve already seen anxiety, people who feel overwhelmed, and people who are hurt, which is increasing nationwide,” Walker said. “The coronavirus puts everything on steroids because of the level of confusion,” he said.

According to experts, the forced destruction of COVID-19 is a more frank conflict between social injustice and mental health inequalities.

“Parallel to this pandemic is this racial awakening, and I think we are now forced to stare at it,” Panfeel said. “And I was forced to meet myself. It was not only beautiful, but also a traumatic experience. Now we are forced to sit between the four walls. Social media witnessing themselves being murdered-there is no choice but to start understanding that help is okay. “

“This is not a new human suffering, but now the importance of mental health in these situations has drawn people’s attention in a way I have never seen before,” Lakshmin said. He said. “What we need in the future is whether to develop resources to meet that need.”

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. all rights reserved.