PasteCase Study- Women and mental illness
This assignment will be about presenting a case study which has been chosen to focus on woman and mental illnesses. Throughout this essay this subject will be looked into three different perspectives which include sociological point of view as well as psychoanalysis and elements of social psychology.
This case study was chosen to look into how today’s society influences women to feel low self-esteem through media, fashion senses which in addition could lead to feeling social/ peer pressure. This itself could lead to mental illness such as depression. Furthermore, what also will be looked into within this subject is how different societies and their perspectives on women have an influence on leading them towards mental illness. Most common illness that will be most focused on throughout this essay is depression. It is very hard to diagnose therefore many suffer from it without realising. It starts off with depressed mood, loss of pleasure/ interests, and most common low self-esteem (feeling down about oneself). Many believe that just because they have one of many signs it does not necessarily mean that they could suffer from it, however, it is not always the case. Throughout the years’ depression became a very common mental illness due to today’s society as well as modernisation and today’s social standards. It is very common to meet younger girls and women discovering that they are suffering from depression mostly when it is at its worst. This assignment will include authentic materials to support and link to certain points to validate them.
Well, to start off it is worthy to mention that depression will be the main focus of this assignment however, it is also worth to touch upon other mental illnesses as those are also very much relevant and important to mention especially looking at today’s modern society. Depression is a whole-body and mind illness which effects sleep, way a person sees themselves, the way a person perceives things and also an illness that has a massive effect on thoughts. This disorder has a deep influence on mood and can firstly give the impression and be seen as just bad passing mood that everyone can find themselves in however it does not go away. Without relevant treatment symptoms can deepen and eventually get much worse. Appropriate treatment which helps most of those that supper from depressive disorder is Psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis was first founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud believed that cure for this state can be through making the unconscious conscious and through motivations. The aim of this therapy itself is to “release repressed emotions and experiences” (McLeod, 2007), this means it is good to use this therapy on individuals that have trauma, depression or those who suffer from anxiety. Many of psychological problems and mental illnesses (as Freud believed) are rooted in persons’ unconscious mind and also in some cases be covert disturbances, therefore this therapy is there to help to bring it out and to turn unconscious conscious (like mentioned before). Some ways used in this therapy are Rorschach ink blots which is basically showing a patient different ink stains and it is believed that it helps to analyse unconscious mind however, as B. F. Skinner (which is behavioural psychologist) criticized this method as being very much subjective and unscientific at the same time. Another way is Dream Analysis, Freud believed that “dreams are the royal road to the unconscious” (S. Freud). Dreams in this matter are people’s visions of subconscious and can contain hidden messages. Therapists this way can analyse what individuals hidden problems are and have bigger chance in helping in fighting depression.
There are some bad points of psychoanalysis therapy, firstly it is very costly and requires up onto 5 sessions per week. In addition, person must be motivated. Due to releasing long hidden memories that could cause depression at first might bring back bad and hurtful memories and could potentially cause further distress. Therapy not always works, it all depends on stage of the disorder and what time of depression it is (there are different types of depression).
There are many mental health issues that are found within women, and there are many grounds beneath to cause them. Women for centuries and in many cultures have been viewed as subordinate gender, having to follow fashion and standards to please surroundings, bringing up children and still being able to smile and look fabulous, workwise woman preferably had to stay home or take up caring jobs. In today’s modern society women did start to rise up and take up more serious and powerful jobs however, this still can cause depression and panic attacks.
Element that will be looked into first are the essentials of social psychology. This element portrays and argues mental issues being caused due to presentation of women in mostly media itself. First of all, media presented women as sexual objects which should have perfect slim body and dress in certain revealing way. This causes many young girls as well as grown up woman to fall under and feel the urge towards social conformity. This was mentioned and argued by Solomon Asch (1907-1996). Even though presenting such media suggested perfection, in many cases it is therefore achieved mostly through unhealthy techniques, this leads many women do decide to be what the society wants them to be. Furthermore, to achieve this state some women fall into mental illnesses such as anorexia or bulimia. These are not very common mental health disorders but can be very extreme and in worst cases can lead to death if not taken care of. Anorexia and bulimia is when women see them self to be bigger than they are in reality and in result decide not to eat (develop eating disorder) as well as over exercise (in some cases), some explain that it makes them feel better about themselves.
In some Asian cultures there are still radical traditions to hold arranged marriages. This means that a girl/ women has to marry into a family that was never introduces to such individual and marriage is mostly a contract between families (marrying into wealthy families). Those women in many cases do not agree with this idea however, there is not much that can be done and those marriages take place. Many arranged marriages end up in domestic violence, constant misunderstandings and underappreciation. In those cultures, women after marriage are more likely to end up taking care of family and bringing up children. These are all perfect grounds for depression as there is no place in self-development or appreciation (if it is one of described cases). Unfortunately, due to social standards women intend not to seek help and families are not much supportive as once women is married it is the responsibility of the husband to take of the well-being. These cases can sadly end up with worst case scenario which is suicide.
Even though family members or close friends may say and show worry about weight loss of such person and tries to discuss and help them, it will still not be accepted or understood by those women with the problem as they still will see themselves bigger or unchanged. Furthermore, as explained by Asch individuals’ tendency to conform is most of the time stronger than personal values. Even though another illness which under these circumstances is more common due to numbers of diagnosis, if not diagnosed early or properly it can also be fatal. Many people suffer from depression unknowingly, however some do recognise symptoms early enough to start fighting it.
As it has been mentioned before females in various societies unfortunately have been presented as an object of sex. This has been done through overall media including magazines as well as TV. This negative and unreal portrayal of women lead to many problems with mental health, development of unhealthy self-esteem as well as unsatisfactory self-image. These factors can lead to feeling shame about oneself as well as anxiety and stress. Another leading factor of women developing mental health issue is violence, sexual abuse and rapes. Through objectification of women and using them as sexual object women suffer from rapes, attempted rapes and violence more often which potentially in many cases leads to mental disorders such as depression.
Depression is not only about feeling down or sad. Every person from time to time will feel unhappy however, person who is suffering from depression will be experiencing very intense negativity, anxiety, feeling hopeless and helpless. With those suffering with depression these feelings do not go away, they stay with them. This illness can happen to anyone and what many people do not realise celebrities do as well suffer from depression even though it seems that they have everything and should have nothing to worry about. If a person that is suffering from it seeks medical help, there is less chances for this illness to come back and higher chances for it to be cured within six months up until a year.
Through social point of view, depression can be caused by peer pressure which could be cause by individuals surrounding such as friends, work, family or like in many cases by media. It mostly starts with feeling down about oneself, oversleeping or not sleeping enough. Although every person at least once in their life will feel depressed, some people will not have enough positivity inside of them to start feeling better and not enough strength to keep going and go back to normality, some unfortunately will develop full depression and would require medical help. Depression can relate to many subjects such as work, as women are portrayed in many cultures as beings that should stay home and look after family. Those that decided to work have to go through many situations where their families will not support and will make it hard to take joy from it. This type of situation can also lean a person to become unhappy at work which could cause failing certain responsibilities, this can result in further stress, feel down and feeling of being unappreciated.
Trying to fit into society and group standards is very common especially in modern days. Many people that come to the UK from different countries feel like outsiders due to the way they speak, dress or carry them self. Bullying in school mostly takes focus on “foreign” or “different faith” girls through the way they dress (could be head covering) or just a simple fact they cannot speak English. Those girls will try their best to fit in and will do anything to achieve social standards set by the community they live in. It could mean taking off their head cover to show off their hair and starting to wear revealing clothes just to be accepted. This overall will be against standards the individual was brought into. How could this lead to depression? Well, as families that were brought up in different religion or culture they have their own set standards. Is someone tries to break them, most of family members will start to go against and have personal talk with the girl that tries to fit in (fitting in, in such cases is also considered as peer pressure) and begin unknowingly putting pressure on top of the girl adding confusion and feeling of misunderstanding which will lead to stress
Media and depression go together way back. Even though women showed on TV are also a creation of many makeup specialists, plastic surgeries and usage of beautifying programmes and filters, they are mostly unreal and in high percentage fake, however, men, create such image in their mind and believe that perfect image of a woman should be what is presented on TV, social media and so on. This brings woman into feeling of not being accepted socially due to their appearance.