Women are particularly vulnerable to anxiety in comparison to men. This may be a surprise to hear, but women account for about 67% of all anxiety diagnoses, even when factors such as likelihood to seek treatment are taken into account. This means that even when scientists statistically control for the fact that women are more likely to see a doc about their anxiety, women still come out as having an anxiety disorder at twice the rate of men.
Interestingly, this increased ratio of anxiety symptoms in women compared to men holds up even when you compare the two genders in different anxiety disorders such as OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), Agoraphobia (fear of leaving the house or being in the open), and social anxiety.
There are a few obvious questions here. Why is it women are more prone to anxiety? Are anxiety attack symptoms in women more intense or less (perhaps women are more anxious but to a lesser individual degree?
As it turns out, women’s anxiety symptoms do differ from men’s anxiety symptoms, but not by much. Women do differ in a few ways, however. Women are more likely to exhibit sadness, tearfulness, and depression-like anxiety symptoms. They’re also more likely to be jumpy – if you find that you are commonly startled by those in your house, that fits the bill!
Anxiety hot flashes are also a more common anxiety symptom in women than in men. With hot flashes, you will find yourself suddenly flushing in the face, chest and sometimes hands. Ears tend to fairly ‘glow’ red, and there will be a subjective sense of heat felt strongly. This anxiety symptom sometimes precipitates the start of an anxiety attack in women.
Do you have all out anxiety attacks? Anxiety attack symptoms in women are easy to spot. If you’ve experienced a sudden overwhelming onset of the following symptoms, you can be pretty sure you had an anxiety attack even without a doc’s insight: Dizziness accompanied by intense fear and anxiety, sweating, a feeling of doom, or a sense that you might be about to die, shakiness and weakness in your body, an urge to hide, and heart palpitations.
Everything mentioned above are classic anxiety attack symptoms in both women and men. Women are more likely to experience the dread and subjective threat cues externally AND internally. In other words, women are more likely to feel that they are in bodily danger from people/things in their environment, as well as a fear that they might die from their anxiety attack (the difficulty breathing and heart palpitations can feel particularly threatening). It is important to note that however terrifying an anxiety attack is in the moment, there are absolutely zero cases of anyone dying from an anxiety attack.
So, what accounts for the much higher rate of women with anxiety symptoms? There are several scientific theories currently in play. There is an (in my opinion sexist) evolutionary psychology theory that suggests women are more anxious because they are inherently at more risk from the physical environment than men are. To compensate, their sense of danger is more easily triggered, and this can lead to a chronic over-activation of the threat system, IE anxiety. So anxiety works to keep women safe but unhappy.
Another theory (which is not incompatible with the above theory) holds that cultural oppression and suppression of women leads to anxiety. Because women are held down, made to stuff down their emotions and are otherwise hindered (often in very non-obvious implicit ways), this stifled expression leads to an internal compulsion of doubting yourself and worrying about your actions. Although the cause of your anxiety was not in your hands, anxiety symptoms are NOT out of your control. Psychophysiological research has determined there are simple ways of working with breathing and the mind to relieve anxiety immediately and for the long term.
Replace anxiety with relief. Replace fear with calm. Click here to take back control.
