Medicating Women’s Feelings

[Natalia]

Article about this here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/opinion/sunday/medicating-womens-feelings.html?fb_ref=Default&_r=0

[Flash]

The author you refer us to has written a book that says it all:


Julie Holland is a psychiatrist in New York and the author of “Moody Bitches: The Truth About the Drugs You’re Taking, the Sleep You’re Missing, the Sex You’re Not Having, and What’s Really Making You Crazy.”

the article:


WOMEN are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children’s needs and intuitive of our partners’ intentions. This is basic to our survival and that of our offspring. Some research suggests that women are often better at articulating their feelings than men because as the female brain develops, more capacity is reserved for language, memory, hearing and observing emotions in others.

These are observations rooted in biology, not intended to mesh with any kind of pro- or anti-feminist ideology. But they do have social implications. Women’s emotionality is a sign of health, not disease; it is a source of power. But we are under constant pressure to restrain our emotional lives. We have been taught to apologize for our tears, to suppress our anger and to fear being called hysterical.

The pharmaceutical industry plays on that fear, targeting women in a barrage of advertising on daytime talk shows and in magazines. More Americans are on psychiatric medications than ever before, and in my experience they are staying on them far longer than was ever intended. Sales of antidepressants and antianxiety meds have been booming in the past two decades, and they’ve recently been outpaced by an antipsychotic, Abilify, that is the No. 1 seller among all drugs in the United States, not just psychiatric ones.

As a psychiatrist practicing for 20 years, I must tell you, this is insane.

At least one in four women in America now takes a psychiatric medication, compared with one in seven men. Women are nearly twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of depression or anxiety disorder than men are. For many women, these drugs greatly improve their lives. But for others they aren’t necessary. The increase in prescriptions for psychiatric medications, often by doctors in other specialties, is creating a new normal, encouraging more women to seek chemical assistance. Whether a woman needs these drugs should be a medical decision, not a response to peer pressure and consumerism.

The new, medicated normal is at odds with women’s dynamic biology; brain and body chemicals are meant to be in flux. To simplify things, think of serotonin as the “it’s all good” brain chemical. Too high and you don’t care much about anything; too low and everything seems like a problem to be fixed.

In the days leading up to menstruation, when emotional sensitivity is heightened, women may feel less insulated, more irritable or dissatisfied. I tell my patients that the thoughts and feelings that come up during this phase are genuine, and perhaps it’s best to re-evaluate what they put up with the rest of the month, when their hormone and neurotransmitter levels are more likely programmed to prompt them to be accommodating to others’ demands and needs.

The most common antidepressants, which are also used to treat anxiety, are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (S.S.R.I.s) that enhance serotonin transmission. S.S.R.I.s keep things “all good.” But too good is no good. More serotonin might lengthen your short fuse and quell your fears, but it also helps to numb you, physically and emotionally. These medicines frequently leave women less interested in sex. S.S.R.I.s tend to blunt negative feelings more than they boost positive ones. On S.S.R.I.s, you probably won’t be skipping around with a grin; it’s just that you stay more rational and less emotional. Some people on S.S.R.I.s have also reported less of many other human traits: empathy, irritation, sadness, erotic dreaming, creativity, anger, expression of their feelings, mourning and worry.

Obviously, there are situations where psychiatric medications are called for. The problem is too many genuinely ill people remain untreated, mostly because of socioeconomic factors. People who don’t really need these drugs are trying to medicate a normal reaction to an unnatural set of stressors: lives without nearly enough sleep, sunshine, nutrients, movement and eye contact, which is crucial to us as social primates.

If the serotonin levels of women are constantly, artificially high, they are at risk of losing their emotional sensitivity with its natural fluctuations, and modeling a more masculine, static hormonal balance. This emotional blunting encourages women to take on behaviors that are typically approved by men: appearing to be invulnerable, for instance, a stance that might help women move up in male-dominated businesses. Primate studies show that giving an S.S.R.I. can augment social dominance behaviors, elevating an animal’s status in the hierarchy.

But at what cost? I had a patient who called me from her office in tears, saying she needed to increase her antidepressant dosage because she couldn’t be seen crying at work. After dissecting why she was upset — her boss had betrayed and humiliated her in front of her staff — we decided that what was needed was calm confrontation, not more medication.

Medical chart reviews consistently show that doctors are more likely to give women psychiatric medications than men, especially women between the ages of 35 and 64. For some women in that age group the symptoms of perimenopause can sound a lot like depression, and tears are common. Crying isn’t just about sadness. When we are scared, or frustrated, when we see injustice, when we are deeply touched by the poignancy of humanity, we cry. And some women cry more easily than others. It doesn’t mean we’re weak or out of control. At higher doses, S.S.R.I.s make it difficult to cry. They can also promote apathy and indifference. Change comes from the discomfort and awareness that something is wrong; we know what’s right only when we feel it. If medicated means complacent, it helps no one.

When we are overmedicated, our emotions become synthetic. For personal growth, for a satisfying marriage and for a more peaceful world, what we need is more empathy, compassion, receptivity, emotionality and vulnerability, not less.

We need to stop labeling our sadness and anxiety as uncomfortable symptoms, and to appreciate them as a healthy, adaptive part of our biology.

[Natalia]

The author you refer us to has written a book that says it all:


Julie Holland is a psychiatrist in New York and the author of “Moody Bitches: The Truth About the Drugs You’re Taking, the Sleep You’re Missing, the Sex You’re Not Having, and What’s Really Making You Crazy.”


lol :)

I've never heard of it (until now)

[Flash]

Most divorce end up with the women having to do the major part of raising the children, and all this with having to work full time mainly, bringing in 30% less money than her male counterpart, cooking, ironing, going to sport/music schedules with her children, all this while there ins a marked increase in autism, ADD and all kind of problems in the genetic pool of her children.

I have seen many many overworked and overtired, overworried mothers and woman.

Plus having to work in an environment asking them the very often more work productivity than their male counterpart without saying a word, for less money. I still see it on a regular basis in corporations.

Life can be a bitch for women!!! i surprised myself lately with a comment that got out as an automatism from my mouth "when will I/we have the time to just live as women?"

[Natalia]

Life can be a bitch for women!!! i surprised myself lately with a comment that got out as an automatism from my mouth "when will I/we have the time to just live as women?"

Yes, sometimes this world isn't very woman/female friendly.

[heather6thsense]

Years ago a great jazz singer said in the lyrics of one of his songs " if there is war between the sexes there will be nobody left" Yes I agree women can have a difficult time but men can also have a difficult time. There are 10 suicide attempts where I currently live and 3 successful suicides every week. The last one I heard about was a young male who lost his job , his partner had left him and she wanted custody of both his children. Also a 'bitch' is a female dog. I do not think that any human in this planet has escaped some degree of post traumatic stress disorder. Amethyst and Flash thanks for posting your opinions, blessed be.

[Natalia]

Years ago a great jazz singer said in the lyrics of one of his songs " if there is war between the sexes there will be nobody left" Yes I agree women can have a difficult time but men can also have a difficult time. There are 10 suicide attempts where I currently live and 3 successful suicides every week. The last one I heard about was a young male who lost his job , his partner had left him and she wanted custody of both his children. Also a 'bitch' is a female dog. I do not think that any human in this planet has escaped some degree of post traumatic stress disorder. Amethyst and Flash thanks for posting your opinions, blessed be.

Whenever I post things like this (which is not often) I never think that, on the whole, men have it easier than women.

We all have suffered, both genders.

In the past I have written about how it is ok for men to feel their feelings or ask for help when they need it, and that the stigma against this in society can lead to men committing suicide.

[Snowflower]

I suspect the psychopathic rulers of working to turn this planet into a world of psychopaths. Emotion is condemned. Don't be too happy or too sad. No ups or downs. You must be bi-polar if you feel or express strong emotion. Psychopaths feel no connection to anything outside themselves and I think they have manipulated the humans on the planet to see a middle of the road lack of feeling as the ideal.

[heather6thsense]

All these labels :confused: there is a spark of divineness in everyone, granted some of them are rough diamonds but I truly believe it's there. Snowblower I'm hearing you. :wizard:

[grannyfranny100]

I had hoped that women in the workplace would "humanize" the workplace culture. Women just adapted to the pre-existing norms rather than adding more emotional depth to the corporations. Little did we realize that men were also adapting but to the psychopaths at the top.

Things did change in Europe: month long vacations, pregnancy leaves, et al of socialism. But as the host of Red Ice Radio points out, the government has taken over and people now lack any of the freedom associated with sovereign.

[Lifebringer]

It's why abusive relationships go on so long too, after a woman is told it's her fault or she's too stupid, or a host of other verbal abuse. But we are born with all our spark plugs firing. We're a important part of the life engine, why else would God give us the honor to bring forth life. If only all men used both sides of their brains here in America, they would see the big picture all the time, or the long term plan provided there's discipline to stick to it. If a woman senses that it's just another of those procrastinated pipe dreams, she won't respect just the words of a future. Just a tip to some of that long term thinking done daily.

[Lifebringer]

It's okay, we're opening our own businesses and not setting profits above life. We know the way after experiencing 3rd class wages and support through decades until the womens' movement. When we get serious, we can get it done too.

Woman=Unconditional LOVE diamonds with many many facets.:rockon:

[Lifebringer]

Hearing a 26 year old daughter say: "it's always been this way, right?" What could I tell her but the truth that 3 years before her birth, America caught a serious illness called "TrickleDown VoodooECOnomics Syndrome." Media got bought and the world has been sick with greed ever since. We've got to tear down that wall of greed one voter election at a time. No matter how much they get from the worldwide conglomerate of KOCH brothers, we must kick the tires, turn on the engine and pump the breaks, before testing out the candidate. It's called vetting and we've got to be pitbulls at it. That's the only animal instinct I believe humanity needs on, it's quest for absolute truth, justice and accountability.

[Lifebringer]

I know, my son took a risk of crime, rather than ask his financially strapped Mom for money at his age of 21.
Pride goeth before the fool I told him 2 years later when he got out. He wanted his 1st child in the world mother, to back to school clothes. She was a young single mother who got pregnant at 14 with some boy, and when my son met her her, he was 18 and she was 17 w/2 year old child. He played the hero,stepped into a ready made family situation and assumed responsibility for the girl and child working two jobs, one a state job. But when she had his child, and mentioned she couldn't fit any of her clothes because she had my grandson a month ago." Set his pride as a new father, off the chart. He had no patience to wait 3 days, and it wasn't like the girl couldn't go three days late the beginning of the school year after having a new child. Anyway. Most youth don't have that patience that is called a waiting space, unless they have gone to church and learned to use their heart felt prayer and have faith.
The world is starving for the truth of God and Son and Creator.
I said it before, that's why I think there is mercy from everyone we've ever come in contact with in the universe, as we are the babes in the wood, but we've become like baby piglets turning this planet into a pigpen.

[Flash]

I know, my son took a risk of crime, rather than ask his financially strapped Mom for money at his age of 21.
Pride goeth before the fool I told him 2 years later when he got out. He wanted his 1st child in the world mother, to back to school clothes. She was a young single mother who got pregnant at 14 with some boy, and when my son met her her, he was 18 and she was 17 w/2 year old child. He played the hero,stepped into a ready made family situation and assumed responsibility for the girl and child working two jobs, one a state job. But when she had his child, and mentioned she couldn't fit any of her clothes because she had my grandson a month ago." Set his pride as a new father, off the chart. He had no patience to wait 3 days, and it wasn't like the girl couldn't go three days late the beginning of the school year after having a new child. Anyway. Most youth don't have that patience that is called a waiting space, unless they have gone to church and learned to use their heart felt prayer and have faith.
The world is starving for the truth of God and Son and Creator.
I said it before, that's why I think there is mercy from everyone we've ever come in contact with in the universe, as we are the babes in the wood, but we've become like baby piglets turning this planet into a pigpen.

these days, the problem is that he will never be able to cross border to Canada because of jail time for something stupid I am sure, which would not have been the case 15 years ago, tell your daughter. Yes, it has changed, for the worst in terms of human values, for easier in terms of technologies. As if it were inversely proportional.

i do think that men do not have it much easier either. They just were taught to disconnect and/or not show it.

[Pam]

" People who don’t really need these drugs are trying to medicate a normal reaction to an unnatural set of stressors: lives without nearly enough sleep, sunshine, nutrients, movement and eye contact, which is crucial to us as social primates".

I find this trend really disturbing. Having used antidepressants in the past, before I understood the implications, I can totally appreciate the term the author uses: synthetic emotions. Our empathy, intuitiveness, compassionate sides as women are part and parcel to the emotional self. It does make us more vulnerable to uncomfortable emotional states, but that is a part of life.

I have found that I can deal with the depression that led me to drugs with exercise, spending time outdoors, and eating well without pharmaceuticals. I feel angry that I was manipulated into believing that antidepressants were the only way, although, I accept responsibility for making the decision to take them. I find it sad that I traded my spontaneous, creative, artistic, empathetic and sometimes depressed self for a duller, dumber, mindless caricature of my former self.

All of this is happening because corporations need to find new ways to feed off of us. They are manipulating the doctors as well. I feel they have caused permanent damage and that I will always pay for taking them. What better way to control our social structure than to dumb down the female population with " I don't give a SH** drugs, as I used to call them.

[Selkie]

A short reading list, for anyone interested in this topic:

The Wise Wound: Myths, Realities, and Meanings of Menstruation by Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove
Women and Madness by Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D.
Women of the Celts by Jean Markale

[RunningDeer]

My favorite line from the article: Women’s emotionality is a sign of health, not disease; it is a source of power. I'd add when expressed/felt through the heart center, the power is exponential.

[gripreaper]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11018963_918585211505601_783863009669037017_n.jpg?oh=ca31966e72c1e294def88b8e825cb641&oe=5584E725&__gda__=1434418404_4336cec6a5742a19305aca0738a6e05c

[Flash]

I am not kidding, it looks like a woman chore description given by a Muslim Iman. Dress code, hard liquor, cigarette, curfue, and not riding with anyone else than a brother or father, not meeting any men (of course, they could not handle the horse themselves either - like an Saoudi Arabia).

AND WE THINK IT WAS BETTER IN THE OLD TIME!!!


https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11018963_918585211505601_783863009669037017_n.jpg?oh=ca31966e72c1e294def88b8e825cb641&oe=5584E725&__gda__=1434418404_4336cec6a5742a19305aca0738a6e05c

[Selkie]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11018963_918585211505601_783863009669037017_n.jpg?oh=ca31966e72c1e294def88b8e825cb641&oe=5584E725&__gda__=1434418404_4336cec6a5742a19305aca0738a6e05c

My answer to #7? MEAD!! The contract doesn't cover mead

http://andrewgough.co.uk/P1006.jpg

Party on, ladies.

[Natalia]

CkfMpxfjKOE

[Snowflower]

To digress a little from the topic. This contract screams out a message. Please note the total lack of academic directives or teaching ability. The whole point of "school" has nothing to do with education and everything to do with social convention.


I am not kidding, it looks like a woman chore description given by a Muslim Iman. Dress code, hard liquor, cigarette, curfue, and not riding with anyone else than a brother or father, not meeting any men (of course, they could not handle the horse themselves either - like an Saoudi Arabia).

AND WE THINK IT WAS BETTER IN THE OLD TIME!!!


https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11018963_918585211505601_783863009669037017_n.jpg?oh=ca31966e72c1e294def88b8e825cb641&oe=5584E725&__gda__=1434418404_4336cec6a5742a19305aca0738a6e05c

[grannyfranny100]

My mother was secretly married for several years so she could continue to teach. The rules changed during WWII and she could continue to teach.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

It's less likely that a women received treatment for her heart attack symptoms in the USA than a man,
but more likely that she will be told to take anti-depressants or some other type of chemical lobotomy.

I think everyone can just be celibate if that's how they want to treat women...

[Flash]

It's less likely that a women received treatment for her heart attack symptoms in the USA than a man,
but more likely that she will be told to take anti-depressants or some other type of chemical lobotomy.

I think everyone can just be celibate if that's how they want to treat women...

And if I am not mistaken, heart attack is the second cause of death in women in America, yet go untreated, cause her more generalised pain (due to heart disease, symptoms being quite different in women than in men) is psychological, isn't it?

Pop an anti-depressant pill lady, your heart problems will go away (pun intended).

[Selkie]

It's less likely that a women received treatment for her heart attack symptoms in the USA than a man,
but more likely that she will be told to take anti-depressants or some other type of chemical lobotomy.

I think everyone can just be celibate if that's how they want to treat women...

And if I am not mistaken, heart attack is the second cause of death in women in America, yet go untreated, cause her more generalised pain (due to heart disease, symptoms being quite different in women than in men) is psychological, isn't it?

Pop an anti-depressant pill lady, your heart problems will go away (pun intended).

I went to the doctor with symptoms of severe depression, dry skin, unexplained weight gain, "brain fog", etc. He told me I needed Prozac. Turned out I was severely hypo-thyroid.

an addition: Wanna really ****off a doctor (of either gender)? Politely ask them where they graduated in their class...:becky:

[Natalia]

What comes up in you when you see this?

http://www.fiercedad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/train-wife-full-poster.jpg

I wouldn't mind being half trained and half wild :)