Thread by @bazzapower

[THREAD] I want to touch on gender differences in mental health. It is a very tricky topic in the sense that there are a lot of environmental issues at play that can skew the numbers a lot. When you look up mental illnesses, they tend to put the percentage of men and women.

There are a few problems with that. First of all, it doesn’t take into account non-binary and transgender individuals. This is problematic because it really doesn’t help with the validity of these numbers. Also, it doesn’t take into account so many factors.

For example, we will notice that women are more likely to have depression and anxiety. However, women also live in a patriarchal society where constant inequality, oppression, and fear for safety will make anyone feel more anxious and depressed.

The way the information is presented is that women are inherently more depressed or anxious, but this is not true at all. If the roles were reversed and men were the ones under oppression, the numbers would change with men having higher incidences of depression and anxiety.

Furthermore, men are less likely to go to therapy or acknowledge the fact that their mental health is suffering. They are also more likely to turn to substance abuse to cope with that which is why substance abuse is much higher in men than women.

I really wish that psych books and online resources would talk more about why certain mental health conditions are more prevalent in certain genders and not others and also focus more on non-binary and transgender.

Whenever you come across those percentages and numbers, please take it with a grain of salt because I have seen men use those numbers to justify that women are somehow weaker. They are not. They just live in a system that doesn’t favour them and they fear for their safety.

This is why we need to push for societies where women and minorities have the same rights, salaries, choices as those who hold power. Then perhaps we will achieve those 50/50 for most mental health conditions.