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Anxiety Looks Different in Men

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Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#51

Post by [deleted] »

chubot wrote: post #32
rabidrat wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the anxiety seems to come from a place of the entire human society being out of balance? I pretty much think if you're not feeling anxious, you're not paying attention.

Do you think that society is more out of balance now than it was 30, 50, 70, or 100 years ago? If so, I’ll be glib and say you haven’t paid enough attention to history :-) To pick a random anecdote, in the past senators have been physically attacked and maimed by their colleagues on the senate floor , i.e. while at work. Campaigns were dirtier than they are now. Politicians would accuse each other of being murderers…

[deleted]

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#52

Post by spaceprison »

This is a great article. For years I didn't know how to handle anxiety so I handled it "like a man" which lead to a pretty decent drinking habit.

Now that I've stopped drinking and being open about what's going on with me, my anxiety looks like traditional anxiety which was easy for my gp to help diagnose.

Taking the leap to be open and get help was the best thing to happen to me in years.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#53

Post by BurningFrog »

ggm wrote: post #10

Most sex differentiated medical stories which pop up in my feed tend to be about drug interactions in women being misunderstood because of the overtesting of males. That mental illness is mis-characterised in men, speaks to me of two things: 1) we haven't had a large enough war to produce the volume of war psychosis outcomes which correct for this and 2) women are tragically over-represented in all forms of mental il…

Drugs are typically never tested on women who might be pregnant, to not risk the health of the baby.

This is a reasonable precaution, but it also means that if a drug has different effect on women, the "scientific" testing might not show that.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#55

Post by BurningFrog »

jacobolus wrote: post #47
nness wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment couldn't be more counter-productive. The article makes it clear that a feeling of anxiety at certain times is completely normal; it is when that anxiety is affects your daily life, causing you distress, or leads to depression or harm should it be concidered an anxiety disorder. The article notes that men can react to or present with anxiety differently; and that representation is ignored, leading to a re…

If you are chronically stressed because you are working a terrible job, have overwhelming family obligations, etc., that doesn’t necessarily mean you have an “anxiety disorder”. It might instead be that your anxiety is a perfectly natural response to bad circumstances. To fix the problem it would be better to address the causes of the stress instead of trying to just treat symptoms. At a societal scale, it would be b…

This is the kind of thinking that CBT addresses.

Of course lowering your stress level is always a valid response, if possible.

But it is possible to handle even very stressful situations without damaging yourself with anxiety and depression. These are skills you can build up, and are very useful to have.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#56

Post by markwaldron »

jdsfighter wrote: post #9
gavia1 wrote: post #2

This surprises me as a male who suffers from anxiety and exhibits none of these symptoms. To be more specific my anxiety manifests as a feeling of unease, sometimes fear; and at times blends in with OCD where I become unsure of my short term memory and whether or not something did or did not happen.

I was only recently diagnosed with anxiety after spending thousands and thousands on an emergency room visit and visits to a cardiologist, and I work for a healthcare company with free access to GPs! I had a variety of symptoms and none of them immediately seemed to shout "anxiety" to my physicians. I was given dozens of blood screenings, X-Rays, CT Scans, EKGs, Echocardiograms, stress tests, sleep studies, only to b…

I had a very similar experience. Started when I was 25 after a 3 month stint of being unemployed. It started with a panic attack (which I thought was a heart attack at the time), and I ended up going to the hospital, a cardiologist, sleep clinic, gastro, etc. until eventually came to the conclusion it was nothing wrong with my heart but rather panic disorder.

I take a low dose of xanax now and all the symptoms went away and I no longer have panic attacks. I'm working on finding a better daily medication, but it completely changed my life to have a temporary solution after 3+ years of struggle and suffering with panic attacks multiple times per week.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#58

Post by bitcurious »

jacobolus wrote: post #47
nness wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment couldn't be more counter-productive. The article makes it clear that a feeling of anxiety at certain times is completely normal; it is when that anxiety is affects your daily life, causing you distress, or leads to depression or harm should it be concidered an anxiety disorder. The article notes that men can react to or present with anxiety differently; and that representation is ignored, leading to a re…

If you are chronically stressed because you are working a terrible job, have overwhelming family obligations, etc., that doesn’t necessarily mean you have an “anxiety disorder”. It might instead be that your anxiety is a perfectly natural response to bad circumstances. To fix the problem it would be better to address the causes of the stress instead of trying to just treat symptoms. At a societal scale, it would be b…

> To fix the problem it would be better to address the causes of the stress instead of trying to just treat symptoms.

The effect of depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental illnesses is that they prevent you from taking steps to address the addressable issues in your life. To start exercising while depressed, to start socializing while suffering from anxiety, etc., are some of the hardest things to do. That’s why medication is typically paired with counseling - the medication prepares you to take the steps the counseling guides you into taking.

To put it another way, anxiety disorders (and depression, and ADHD, and more) take away agency. The purpose of medication is to reintroduce agency. The medication (for most people) won’t fix their problems, but it will help them fix them.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#59

Post by dleslie »

spaceprison wrote: post #52

This is a great article. For years I didn't know how to handle anxiety so I handled it "like a man" which lead to a pretty decent drinking habit. Now that I've stopped drinking and being open about what's going on with me, my anxiety looks like traditional anxiety which was easy for my gp to help diagnose. Taking the leap to be open and get help was the best thing to happen to me in years.

If I may be so bold as to inquire, what was your path to stop drinking? Do you find you replaced it with another coping mechanism?

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#60

Post by ggm »

mjfl wrote: post #50
ggm wrote: post #10

Most sex differentiated medical stories which pop up in my feed tend to be about drug interactions in women being misunderstood because of the overtesting of males. That mental illness is mis-characterised in men, speaks to me of two things: 1) we haven't had a large enough war to produce the volume of war psychosis outcomes which correct for this and 2) women are tragically over-represented in all forms of mental il…

3) We really don't know what mental illness is, outside of what makes people criminally violent.

Historically, the (entirely reasonable, given lack of basic equity in property rights, body integrity, voting, law) discontent women displayed in western society which now expresses politically as feminism, was written down to hysteria, depression or other mental illness and thus it (mental illness in women) was used as a mechanism of control.

I would like to think this ended last century, but I am suspicious it lingers on. The medical profession advances at a snails pace, and it would not surprise me to find out that senior medical staff routinely apply mysogynistic models to womens health. I know politicians do, the evidence of this is abundant (reproductive rights)

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