Women's mental health: overview and key issues

Anxiety Disorders

In Chapter 11 "Anxiety Disorders," author Teresa Pigott provides an in-depth review of the definitions and types of anxiety disorders. Additionally, she provides discussions on the types of anxiety disorders that exist, and possible relationships to not only gender, but to the female reproductive cycle as well. Inferences are drawn to possible differences between reported rates of anxiety disorders between males and females, with some insight given to the psychosocial arena relating to prevalence rates among women. Further, Pigott touches upon the nature vs. nurture argument, by explaining the genotype/phenotype concept.

Pigott's descriptions, while accurate, are academic, medicinal, even sterile. It is great reading if you are studying for an exam, or attempting to self-diagnose, or even if you just want to be able to hold your own in a high-brow conversation on the topic. However, some concepts in the reading elucidate personal feelings of inadequacy. These feelings come from the very fact that gender differences in anxiety disorders are discussed at all, that 'women' are more prone overall, that perhaps that is because of hormones, etc. Discussions like these are reminiscent of the quote by baseball great Yogi Berra "it's deja vu all over again…," meaning that the very language a culture uses to describe a problem, is in itself, a problem that is self-defining and ultimately circuitous.

One is left with a general feeling of inadequacy for simply being born a woman, for living a male-dominated culture, and for living in a culture where sex is over-sexualized. Through the aegis of the XY chromosome roulette, the subtheme that a woman is left with after reading about anxiety disorder issues such as Pigott outlined (with female bias for the more troublesome aspects) lays within the awful paradigm that 'hysteria' is the birthright that men decide to proclaim upon women, simply as being the owner of the uterus.

Journal 8 -- Sexual Dysfunction

In the chapter "Sexual Dysfunction" by Anita H. Clayton, a discussion ensues that plumbs the depths of what sexual dysfunction means, what factors are involved in creating sexual dysfunction, how a practitioner assesses the problem, and possible treatments. Generally speaking, the dysfunction occurs due to psychological or physiologic issues.

One particular topic mentioned, was sexual assault as leading to sexual dysfunction. In American society today, 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused in the course of their childhood. This is incredibly dismal, and what is even more incredulous is that the 'dysfunction' industry (pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, etc.) is focused on 'fixing' the woman, not the abuser. Let us as a culture discuss why this is so, why pornography is so titillating, why prostitution is considered morally repugnant instead of socially necessary, and why sex offenders often 'offend' again and again? Is it no small wonder, that major depressive disorder is common in so-called sexual dysfunction, when a woman has been assaulted at some stage in her life, a victim of power-seekers? Not so strange, though what is strange is the lack of connection to other social ills that lead to assault.