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Are Women More Prone To Anxiety Disorders Than Men?

Everyone has experienced anxiety at some point in their life. Whether you have been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, experienced uneasiness about your future, or even just suffered from a bad case of PMS, anxiety is a prevalent issue we can all relate to.

This is especially true if you’re a woman, since women are more prone to anxiety than men.

It’s tempting to write off your anxiety as something you just have to deal with, treating it like just another emotion you’re expected to live with. But no one deserves to be stuck with excessive worry.

Although everyone experiences anxiety for different reasons, ranging from differences in brain chemistry to lifestyle habits and environmental stressors, there are ways to manage your anxiety and help you feel better.

Anxiety can be scary, overwhelming, and feel impossible to overcome, so you might not be sure where to begin when it comes to treating your issues.

Thankfully, you don’t have to go at it alone. Here’s everything you have to know about women and anxiety, including what makes women more susceptible to this mood disorder and the various ways to tackle it.

Anxiety is a broad term, and you might be questioning whether what you’re experiencing is even anxiety in the first place.

For some people, anxiety is very mental, existing in the form of racing thoughts and negative feelings about situations. But for others, anxiety can be very physical, causing trouble breathing or even nausea.

Oftentimes it can be a combination of both.

For our ancestors, anxiety played an important evolutionary purpose: It triggered our fight or flight reaction, helping us to survive by reacting to our fear, such as running from a predator.

There is still a purpose for anxiety in today’s environment, and it can be a healthy part of life.

Whether it’s a problem in your relationship that needs to be resolved or you have a big presentation coming up, anxiety can trigger the actions necessary to resolve these issues.

Stress and anxiety can also have a reciprocal relationship. Anxiety can cause stress, and stress can cause anxiety. “Anxiety that affects one’s ability to function on a daily basis — whether at home, work, or in social settings — can cause a great deal of stress,” says Manly.

“Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are released into the space (or synapse) between nerve cells, which support the transfer of a nerve impulse from one nerve fiber to the next,” says Steinberg. “The concentrations of neurotransmitters can also play a role in the initiation, maintenance, and cessation of anxiety, as well as other emotional states, including depression.”

Imbalanced levels of these neurotransmitters can result in anxiety. Some people have naturally low levels of these neurotransmitters, while some have lower levels because of what they eat or how they live.

Other people’s’ brains have changed the way they create and utilize these neurotransmitters in response to extended anxious or depressed states.

Symptoms of anxiety can be both mental and physical, and they can come in many forms.

To be considered an anxiety disorder, symptoms must last most days for at least six months and generally cause significant problems in multiple areas of your life.

Symptoms of anxiety can also be physical. They can include fatigue, increased heart rate and restlessness, sweating, trembling, hyperventilating, and gastrointestinal. Again, stress about these symptoms can end up making anxiety worse.

As mentioned earlier, research shows that women are twice as likely to have an anxiety disorder than men, and these disorders are more likely to occur earlier in life than with men.

There are many hypotheses as for why women seem to be more susceptible to anxiety than men, beginning with their physiology.

“Given the natural hormonal fluctuations that occur throughout a woman’s life (premenstrual, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopausal, and menopausal), significant and dramatic changes in hormonal balance are often experienced,” says Manly.

Both estrogen and progesterone imbalances can lead to anxiety in women — hello PMS — and they also might be responsible for differences in their fight-or-flight responses compared to men.

But estrogen and progesterone aren’t the only hormones responsible for women’s increased susceptibility to anxiety.

There is some evidence suggests that the female brain does not process serotonin as quickly as the male brain. Additionally, women are also more sensitive to low levels of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a hormone that organizes stress responses.

This makes them twice as vulnerable as men to stress-related disorders.

Furthermore, women are also pushed into societal roles that can lead to high amounts of stress and anxiety.

In addition to focusing on their own careers, they are often the primary caregivers and often feeling like they have to do it all: work full time, take care of the kids, run the house, etc.

In addition to their own well-being, they often are responsible for the happiness of others, such as their children or spouse, which can be anxiety inducing.

Finally, it is also possible that it feels more socially acceptable for women to admit that they have anxiety or that they feel more comfortable reaching out for help than men do, which could explain the higher numbers of women with this diagnosis.

“It’s clear that women are predisposed to the effects of anxiety given their physiology,” says Manly. “However, given the many stigmas associated with mental health issues — particularly the insidious, ridiculous belief that ‘Real men are tough and don’t need help,’ women are certainly more inclined to reach out for mental health support than their male counterparts.

In addition, men are more likely to compartmentalize and ‘wall off’ feelings of anxiety and fear, whereas women are more likely to acknowledge and talk about their feelings to friends, family, and mental health professionals.”

Thankfully, anxiety isn’t something you have to just accept and deal with. There are a number of ways to manage your anxiety, whether it’s through therapy, lifestyle habits, or even natural remedies. Everyone responds differently to individual types of therapies, but there are ways to keep your anxiety at bay and enjoy living your life.

Lifestyle habits are especially important when it comes to managing anxiety. Here are some that can be implemented to help prevent anxiety from arising and help alleviate existing anxiety.

“Even a morning or evening walk around the block goes a long way to relieving stress and anxiety,” says Manly.

Socializing: Social interaction is important for mental health, and even though it can sound daunting, spending time with friends and family can help increase your wellbeing and decrease your feelings of anxiety. “Sharing stories with friends helps normalize the fact that other people also have major life stresses, and it can give you a much needed vacation from your own,” says Steinberg.

In addition to helpful lifestyle changes, there are a number of natural supplements that can also help with anxiety. Any supplements should be taken only after receiving a primary care physician’s approval to avoid negative side effects including allergic reactions.

Research also suggests that the following supplements can help reduce anxiety as well.

If you’re a women with anxiety, you’re not alone. Between our physiological differences and life responsibilities, women are at greater risk than men for anxiety disorders.

However, women also tend to be more open about discussing these anxieties, which can serve as a buffer against the negative effects of anxiety.

Dealing with constant worry and feelings of malaise can be frustrating, isolating, and sometimes scary, but you should never feel like you have to suffer alone.

If possible, it’s best to seek out a professional, who can not only help you work out some of your anxieties through cognitive behavioral therapy, but who can help guide you to make the right lifestyle changes that can help alleviate your suffering. It may feel like the doom and gloom will never end, but there are options out there for everyone.

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