Depression is something that can affect both men and women. It can be a mild depression in which the person is still able to function, or it can be severe enough that the person feels unable to continue on. While some of the symptoms for depression can be nearly the same for both men and women, the way the symptoms manifest in each is different. While women are most often diagnosed with depression faster, many men suffer from the condition a lot longer before a diagnosis.

Top Reasons For Depression

The reason for this is that most women will acknowledge how they’re feeling, but some men aren’t so quick to acknowledge what they’re feeling. This leads men into a state of denial where they keep telling themselves that they’re fine and they try to shake it off. Some symptoms of depression cross both sexes, such as feeling blue. Women might openly admit to feeling blue whereas men will usually label the feeling as they’re just feeling tired.

Both men and women might experience insomnia and fatigue. Women are more likely than men to have difficulty getting out of bed when they’re depressed. Both may develop difficulty focusing and both may lose interest in activities they once enjoyed.

Men and Women

Men and women alike might also lose interest in food or overeat to stuff the emotions.

Men are more likely to get angry and confrontational. Whereas a simple traffic issue didn’t bother them before, with depression, they might experience road rage.

They might yell and scream when they didn’t before. But like women, their depression might also show up as pain somewhere the in body. They may experience headaches, stomachaches and an inability to be intimate with a partner.

Women are more likely to have mood swings while men are more likely to engage in dangerous behaviour such as reckless driving, drinking to the point of passing out or taking illegal drugs.

Men won’t spend time dwelling on why they feel down, while women do. Men push thoughts associated with their depression out of their minds while women go over them. Women might burst into tears and engage in a cycle of damaging thoughts such as blaming themselves.

Women are more likely to think about the depression until they realize that’s what they’re going through. Men will cover up the depression by finding a way to drown it out or ignore it such as working longer hours, playing video games, or staying at the gym longer.

A man’s depression may go undiagnosed because they push aside the symptoms associated with depression and often won’t admit to anyone what they’re experiencing. A woman will almost always tell someone else and seek help. Women tend to experience longer periods of depression than men do, but men are more likely than a woman to commit suicide.