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Skyler Cotrell

Professor Tyler

English 1201

27 March 2021

Why are Females more Prone to Anxiety than Males?

Anxiety is the number one mental illness in the United States, it is easily treatable but, in

most cases, goes untreated. Anxiety can interfere with your social life, work, and school if you

are attending school. Many people do not think they have anxiety but just assume they are

stressed about life that is why it goes untreated. About 19.1 % of adults in the United States

suffer from anxiety and of that 23.4 % of them are females and only 14.3% of them are males.

So why is it that the females' percentages are higher? Females are more prone to anxiety than

males because of balancing work and family life, males are not as accepting of admitting they

have anxiety so the male’s percent could be wrong, also females have a more elevated HPA axis.

I have chosen to do this topic because I have struggled with anxiety since I was a little

girl. It was worse when I was younger, the worst years that I dealt with anxiety were six years

old to around ten years old I could not even go to public places, I could not hear loud noises. I

also was terrified of anything that a normal child would love like people in cartoon costumes,

balloons, any toy that made noises. But through the years I have learned how to live with
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anxiety and manage those feelings. I have always heard that females were more prone to anxiety

than males, but I wanted to research and see for myself.

The history of anxiety started back in Greco-Roman which is referring to the ancient

Greeks and Romans. Back in106 BC to 43 BC, (Crocq) a Latin Stoic philosopher named Cicero

labeled anxiety which is called angor in Latin as a disorder. Cicero defined anxiety as a

constricting disorder when the Romans were coming up with new medical terms. Cicero wrote a

book about how to free your mind of anxiety called Peace of Mind. Back in Roman times, they

thought anxiety stemmed from the fear of death, so many philosophers wrote that the way to

treat anxiety was to think of the present and not think of the future. Marc-Antoine Crocq stated

that a happy life includes freeing your mind of worry which they called ataraxia. They believe

that you should free your mind of the negative past and stop worrying about the future. You

should be living in the present. (Crocq)

During Roman times, they put on record that anxiety was a disorder or an illness of the

brain but through the years, anxiety being an illness or disorder was off records. Many people

during the times of it not being on record of a disorder was being diagnosed with something

completely different. In 1621 Robert Burton wrote a book from everything about anxiety and

depression up till the 17th century. In his book, he writes about cases from the Greek and Latin

records. In the 18th century and really all the up till that time everyone thought all anxiety and

depression disorders were caused by melancholia. Melancholia is not because of a disease but is

sadness caused by someone you love passing away, you see something sad or anything that

would make you upset. (Crocq)

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Eventually starting in 1952 there was a book created called DSM and that is the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Which was the first book made with all

the diagnoses and descriptions of mental disorders for clinical use. The American Psychiatric

Association, which was founded in 1844, kept making these books all the way up till DSM-5

published in 2013. Each book goes into different mental disorders and especially the growth of

mental disorders through the years. The fifth and most recent one introduces the grouping of

anxiety and the three different kinds of scales of anxiety disorders that share the same features.

(Crocq)

Women are more prone to worry and have negative thoughts. Fatemeh Bahrami and

Naser Yousefi wrote in their paper that girls struggle more with anxious thoughts and worried

thoughts that cannot be controlled. Fatemeh Bahrami and Naser Yousefi also said that it is

called metacognitive beliefs, which is when you have uncontrollable worry and believe that

worry cannot be controlled. About 50.4% of females had negative thoughts during Fatemeh and

Naser research while 30.5% of males had negative thoughts. The females that had higher

thoughts that worry cannot be controlled are more prone to anxiety and social anxiety. Females

are more prone to anxiety than males because females’ thoughts about worry not being able to be

controlled and their negative emotional thoughts are higher than males. (Bahrami and Yousefi)

By Fatemeh Bahrami and Naser Yousefi research it shows that women have more worry

and negative thoughts than men. Women must deal with negative thoughts and worry. Women

can have negative thoughts about themselves, about how they think their work performance is,

how they are raising their children, or how their relationship is going with their partner. They
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can have worried thoughts about how they think others see them. If a woman already has

anxiety and you add the worry and negative thoughts to that, that can raise their anxiety by a lot.

Since anxiety stems from worried thoughts already. Women having to deal with more negative

and worried thoughts can be a major cause of why women are more prone to anxiety.

Females also struggle with anxiety when balancing work and family. Women and society

believe that women should put everyone else's happiness and care before themselves. In most

cases, females are the caregiver of the family, when women must deal with being the caregiver,

being with their spouse, and being at work they could become stressed with all of that. Many

females can get anxiety from the lack of support, having no spouse support when dealing with

children can cause anxiety. Also, the lack of social support when it comes to their job or friends

can cause them anxiety. From personal experience, I have watched my mom take care of my

sister and I all our lives and also work around my dad's job that made us move often and throw

her dreams away because of it. Females are more prone to anxiety than males because they have

to balance being a caregiver, work, and having a spouse or their family. But they also must deal

with the fact that sometimes they do not have any kind of support when they are raising their

children which can cause anxiety. (Tynan)

When a woman must be the caregiver of a family with no support and is expected to do

well at their job. How does that not cause anxiety? Having to balance their lives, their children's

lives, and their work lives women forget that they need to take care of themselves. Women

forget they need to make themselves happy and that they do not need to take care of everyone

else’s happiness. When a woman is responsible for everyone else’s happiness and care that can
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cause a woman to get a bit of anxiety. Women can get anxiety about taking care of everyone

else because they can start stressing over the fact that they feel like they are failing at making

someone else happy.

Another reason the female’s numbers for cases of anxiety could be higher than males is

that they also add females that are pregnant which is a very anxious time. Pregnant women have

a higher chance of getting anxiety and depression, since pregnancy is a difficult time for women.

There is a thing as antenatal anxiety which is technically just anxiety when you are pregnant.

Some of the main causes of such high anxiety when you are pregnant is the lack of a support

system, an accidental or unwanted pregnancy, or complications with that pregnancy or a

previous one. Males will never understand how it feels to be pregnant or the physical bond that

females have with their baby. Yes, males can still have parental anxiety, but it will never be at

the level that the mother is at while pregnant. Studies have shown that women struggle with

anxiety more when they have no support team during the pregnancy and while raising the child.

This could be a good reason why females numbers are higher since males do not go through this

kind of anxiety. (Biaggi, et al.)

Having women that go through pregnancy have a higher chance of getting anxiety.

Pregnancy is a tough time for women and a woman's body. The women’s body is under major

stress while going through these changes. Also, women may be more anxious about their baby

and if it grows right and does not have any health issues. Men do not go through this kind of

anxiety they do not understand the stress it puts onto a woman's body. Since these anxiety cases
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also go into the research that says women are more prone to anxiety this is going to spike the

number for women since men do not experience this kind of anxiety.

Women are more likely to seek help when it comes to them being anxious than men. But

why is that men believe they should have a “real man” role and hide their emotions and succeed

in success and power. Men also are less likely to get diagnosed with anxiety or any mental

health disorder because they mask it. Men that are suffering from anxiety or depression are more

likely to hide it with anger and cut back from what they love to do. Men also are more prone to

usually try to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol making it hard to diagnose them. By males

not being willing to get help for their anxiety and not being diagnosed could affect the numbers

the researchers do. Where the male’s number of cases could be just as high as females, but their

numbers do not show. This could be one reason why females are more prone to anxiety than

males because the numbers could be off. (American Psychological Association)

In many cases it is truly sad that men believe that they are not supposed to show their

emotions and if they do it will make them weak. Men should be comfortable showing and

talking about their emotions. Especially with anxiety since it can cause you to have issues with

your family, friends, and work. Men also need to stop seeking help through drugs and alcohol

because that just makes their anxiety worse by them doing that. By men not seeking help and

also by their doctor not noticing that they are dealing with their anxiety a different way many of

men with anxiety go unnoticed and undocumented.

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The HPA is known as the “hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and it is what helps you

respond to stress” (Marques, et al.). A female HPA axis is higher than a male’s, that is one

reason why women are more prone to anxiety. Females have an elevated HPA axis when they

are stressed and rested. Studies show that the female HPA axis is elevated even while females

are resting. The HPA axis is what helps you with your fight, flight, or freeze. The fact that

females have an elevated HPA axis while they are resting means females could always be on

edge about something. Your HPA axis usually elevates when there is a stressor that is when

your fight, flight or freeze kicks in. There should not be any reason for someone’s HPA axis to

be elevated while they are resting and not stressors are present. (Marques, et al.)

The woman's HPA axis being elevated even when rested goes back to what I said about

women having worried thoughts that cannot be controlled. Women are always worrying and

stressed about something even if there is no reason to. Women that are always worried are going

to end up having anxiety. The HPA axis being elevated is something that they cannot control.

The HPA axis is an interactive neuroendocrine unit. It comprises the hypothalamus, pituitary

gland, and adrenal gland. This is one of the major reasons that females are more prone to anxiety

than males.

The female’s sex hormone estrogen controls your emotions also the way the different

phases of a female’s reproductive life can cause anxiety. It is shown that women have a higher

risk of having anxiety when going through different phases of their reproductive lives. Those

reproductive lives could be menopause, puberty, postpartum and pregnancy. During these

different phases the body is fluctuating with releasing estrogen which helps control emotion and
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is the female’s sex hormone. During these times this could be the hardest time for females to be

able to ignore the negative thoughts and the worry and fear they have. This could be another big

factor to why females are more prone to anxiety than males because males do not have that

specific sex hormone. They also do not have to deal with all the negative thoughts that females

have to deal with. Also, they do not have to go through as drastic reproductive changes

throughout their lives. (Maeng and Milad)

The women’s sex hormone estrogen is what helps you control your emotions and

testosterone is the males sex hormone and it is shown that it can lower the chances of anxiety and

depression. When women are going through their menstrual cycle more estrogen is released

causing and fluctuation in women's emotions. This time can cause more anxiety and worry. On

the other hand, studies have shown that the males sex hormone testosterone can lower your

chances of having anxiety. There is a therapy that uses testosterone because it lowers the

chances of anxiety. The higher your testosterone levels the lower your chances of having anxiety

the lower your testosterone levels the higher chance of you having anxiety. Since male’s and

female’s sex hormones work so differently and males do not have to go through all of the

reproductive lives like a female does that can explain why female’s anxiety cases are higher.

Here are some tips on how to deal with anxiety. Take a moment for yourself to go for a

walk and listen to your favorite music, stepping away from what is causing your anxiety will

help you clear your mind. Limit your alcohol and caffeine intake this is for multiple reasons; it

can make your anxiety worse and can cause panic attacks. Also drinking alcohol when you have

bad anxiety could be for the wrong reason you could be trying to self-medicate. Take a moment
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and breathe and just count to ten, let your mind focus on something else. Know that you cannot

control everything, sometimes you must just let it go and step back and realize it is out of your

control. Also know that you are doing the best every day you get up to be proud of how far you

have made it. I personally love to go to the gym, put on music that best pumps me up and makes

me feel good and do a good lift. I also love to roller skate when it is nice out. That is another

thing I do to help manage my anxiety. I wanted to put in some tips on how to deal with anxiety

because I believe anxiety is a serious disorder that can cause serious changes in someone's life.

(ADAA)

The misconception of this topic is that men are less likely to be diagnosed with anxiety

and do not seek help. Like American Psychological Association stated, men tend to hide their

mental disorders. Which could cause the true number of anxiety disorders diagnosed between

males and females to be wrong. There could be so many males out there struggling with anxiety

but are either self-medicating and not getting diagnosed or they are ignoring it and pushing it as

normal stress. That could make it near too impossible to really know if the numbers are

accurate. Maybe there really is no difference between males and females when it comes to

anxiety. Maybe females are just more open about their mental illness.

After doing research it has shown that women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with

anxiety than males. It is because women are born to worry more and to have negative anxious

thoughts. Women are meant to be the caregiver of their families. Women have an elevated fight

or flight even when there are no stressors around. Women’s own sex hormones and reproductive

systems cause emotional problems and anxiety. Where the male’s se hormone lowers the chance
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of anxiety. These are all the many reasons why women are more prone to anxiety than males.

Male’s struggling with anxiety and that is hiding it need to realize that it is completely okay to be

struggling with anxiety. Millions of people are struggling with them. But they also need to see

someone and get the help they need if it is to the point of them not being able to live their normal

life.

Honestly, there may not be an answer to why females are more prone to anxiety than

men, yes males do not seek help as much as women do. Yes, women seem to worry more and

have negative thoughts more often than men. With also being the caregiver of the many and

balancing work that can be stressful. But that is not enough to really answer why women are

more prone. The only information that really proves scientific facts are that females have a

higher HPA axis and that when estrogen is released in the brain that is what controls some of our

emotions.
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Work Cited

Bahrami, Fatemeh, and Naser Yousefi. “Females Are More Anxious than Males: a

Metacognitive Perspective.” Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,

Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, 2011,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3939970/.

Biaggi, Alessandra, et al. “Identifying the Women at Risk of Antenatal Anxiety and Depression:

A Systematic Review.” Journal of Affective Disorders, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical

Press, Feb. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879174/#:~:text=Pregnancy%20is

%20a%20time%20of,development%20of%20anxiety%20and%20depression.

Crocq, Marc-Antoine. “A History of Anxiety: from Hippocrates to DSM.” Dialogues in Clinical

Neuroscience, Les Laboratoires Servier, Sept. 2015,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4610616/.

"generation anxiety." Sun-Herald [Sydney, Australia], 16 Aug. 2015, p. 12. Gale In Context:

Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A425501470/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=eb9b03f6.

Accessed 21 Mar. 2021.

Marques, Alessandra Aparecida, et al. “Gender Differences in the Neurobiology of Anxiety:

Focus on Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis.” Neural Plasticity, Hindawi Publishing

Corporation, 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4738969/.

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“Men: A Different Depression.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological

Association, 2005, www.apa.org/research/action/men.

“Tips to Manage Anxiety and Stress.” Tips to Manage Anxiety and Stress | Anxiety and

Depression Association of America, ADAA, adaa.org/tips.