Are Women Really More Anxious Than Men?
By Tim Mossholder via Unsplash
Americans are operating in survival mode. Between inflation, the ongoing pandemic, and global crises, the last several years have brought lingering stressors that are fueling our anxiety. Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions in the United States, with about 19 percent of adults experiencing an anxiety disorder in any given year and more than 30 percent experiencing one at some point in their lives.
The most common type of anxiety is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Common symptoms of GAD include:
Irritability
Constant worry
Restlessness
Trouble sleeping
Physical pains, like headaches, stomach aches, and muscle tension
Trouble concentrating
These symptoms, however, don’t show up consistently for everyone, and differences can be seen across cultures and genders. For instance, women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety than men.
Does that mean women are naturally more prone to anxiety? Not necessarily. More research is needed to show exactly what causes these higher rates among women, but one thing we know for sure is that gender impacts the way we operate in the world. When it comes to mental health conditions, there are big differences in the ways that men and women express anxiety.
In my experience as a therapist, I often notice differences in how men and women talk about their anxiety. Men might talk about feeling irritable or angry, while women tend to talk about feeling panicked or worrying all the time. I’ve also noticed that anxious behaviors tend to manifest differently: Men usually express anxiety through difficulties in relationships or substance use, while women express anxiety through difficulties sleeping or rumination.
I find that people don’t always use the word “anxiety” to describe how they’re feeling. Some people will say that they feel stressed or overwhelmed. Others might say that they are burned out and have too much on their plate. After talking about their symptoms and experience for a while, we usually come to realize that what they’re experiencing is anxiety. So on the surface, it’s possible to miss many anxiety diagnoses if you rely on self-reporting.
Why Women Express Anxiety Differently
Research suggests that one biological reason why women experience more anxiety than men could be hormones: Estrogen, which occurs in higher amounts in women, can contribute to being easily activated and or having a longer-acting fight-or-flight response, while testosterone (more prevalent in men) may help ease anxiety symptoms.
Beyond biology, we know gender constructs can shape a person’s experiences – it impacts how we’re socialized, how we’re expected to look and act, and often what we end up doing in life. There are a number of ways this affects how a woman may express her anxiety differently:
Gender Socialization - Women are socialized to handle stress differently than men. Researchers have theorized that women might experience more anxiety because they’re socialized to cope with stress by repeatedly thinking about issues, while men are socialized to take action to solve problems quickly.
Sexism and Trauma - Women are more likely than men to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after traumatic events like domestic violence, emotional abuse, and sexual assault. As a minoritized group, many women also experience sexism and microaggressions in their daily lives. These experiences can lead to higher rates of anxiety.
Openness to Seeking Help - Women are socialized to talk through their issues and might be more likely to seek support from someone like a therapist – 25% of women seek mental health treatment in a given year, compared to only 13% of men. That means women are just more likely to get diagnosed when seeking help, and men are simply under-diagnosed.
Gender also is much more complex than just the simple gender binary. Trans people, nonbinary people, agender people, and others in the LGBTQ+ community also experience anxiety at much higher rates than straight, cisgender people. This points more to reasons such as socialization, discrimination, and trauma rather than simple biology.
It’s Important to Address Your Anxiety
When anxiety goes untreated, it can lead to other mental health disorders such as depression or substance abuse. Our anxiety can grow and affect the way we interact in our workplace, within our relationships and especially the way we treat ourselves. Unchecked anxiety can affect physical health such as increased risk of heart attack, panic attacks, insomnia, and more.
When I’m working with a client who is experiencing anxiety, I like to first identify and name their anxiety with them since people often mischaracterize their anxiety as irritability or anger. We’ll then work together to explore their first experiences of anxiety and how it has evolved to their current experience, how they can build healthy habits and interrupt unhelpful thinking patterns. Regardless of gender, anxiety treatment typically looks the same.
I also use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which helps clients increase their awareness and understanding of what may trigger their anxiety, and then reframe or challenge the anxious thought.
I talk to my clients about self-care and creating positive habits to cope with stress. I might work on going “back to basics” with their self-care – ensuring that they’re remembering to eat meals, stepping away from their computers, getting time outside, and spending time with loved ones who support their mental health. We also talk about deeper kinds of self-care, like working through negative core beliefs, engaging in positive self-talk, and being present in the current moment, rather than mentally being lost in anxious thoughts. Successfully managing anxiety all starts with the same want to adjust the unhelpful patterns you notice and having the courage to make a change.