Symptoms of Female Depression

Learn About Symptoms of Female Depression

Women are more vulnerable to depression than men. The reason for this is that woman go through several major hormonal and psychological changes in their life (puberty, PMS, pregnancy and menopause), where men experience those kind of changes only once in their lives (during puberty).

Therefore, many symptoms of female depression are different than those in male depression.

Symptoms of female depression can be categorized in more than one way. For example, they can be divided into four categories such as physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral symptoms of depression. This kind of categorization is usually the best however, when talking about symptoms of female depression they can be categorized in different ways as well.

Female depression symptoms can be categorized by the women’s life stages: they are female puberty symptoms of depression, symptoms of disphoric disorder, pregnancy depression symptoms, postpartum depression symptoms and menopausal depression symptoms.

Because this is a very important subject, this article will discuss both ways of categorization of female depression symptoms.

Physical Symptoms of Female Depression:

• Headaches

• Chronic unexplained pain

• Muscle pain

• Dry mouth

• Fatigue

• Abdominal bloating

Cognitive Female Depression Symptoms:

• Constant negative thinking

• Thinking about suicide

• Intrusive thoughts

• Concentration problems

Emotional Symptoms of Female Depression:

• Hopelessness

• Worthlessness

• Low self-esteem

• Feeling "empty"

• Sadness

• Anger

• Irritation

Behavioral Female Depression Symptoms:

• Insomnia

• Change in appetite

• Being aggressive

• Excessive crying

• Alcohol problems

• Low libido (sex drive)

• Social withdrawing

• Mood swings

• Not taking care of personal hygiene

Another categorization of symptoms for female depression is categorized by female life stages. This categorization has one big advantage, which is learning about specific symptoms for the specific time in woman’s life.

1. Puberty Symptoms of Female Depression:

• Substance abuse

• Promiscuity

• Poor school achievement

• Problems with law

• Violence

• Social withdrawal

2. Symptoms of Disphoric Disorder:

• All symptoms of depression (e.g. hopelessness, irritation, mood swings etc.) are taking place two weeks or less before menstruation and are reduced a few days after the menstrual period has started.

3. Symptoms of Pregnancy Depression:

• Hopelessness

• Thinking about abortion even though it is a planed pregnancy

• Drinking alcohol or smoking

• Hating your body

• Thinking about suicide

• Blaming your husband for getting you pregnant

• Not being able to get out of the bed

4. Postpartum Depression Symptoms:

• Feeling "empty" when holding your baby

• Refusing to feed your baby

• Worthlessness

• Having aggressive thoughts or being aggressive with your baby

• Constant negative thinking about your motherhood

• Feeling lost

5. Menopausal depression symptoms

There are no specific symptoms of female depression for menopausal depression, however if a woman is experiencing symptoms of depression during perimenopause (the period of transition between premenopause and menopause), it is likely that she suffers from menopausal depression.

It is important to learn about symptoms of female depression as much as you can because there are many women who need help and never get it.

Society can be very judgmental towards women that do not take proper care of themselves during pregnancy or their children, without ever knowing that those women are depressed and need treatment. This is why knowing what the symptoms of female depression are is very important.

If you have symptoms of female depression you need to address them and get the best treatment you can. Depression is successfully treated, but to feel better, you need to be in treatment. There are many women that suffer in silence. Do not be one of them.

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/ Symptoms of Postpartum Depression / Premenstrual Syndrome / Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder / Pregnancy Depression / Menopausal Depression / Depression in Women