Focusing on women's mental health for Women's Health Week

Focusing on women's mental health for Women's Health Week

The mental health crisis can affect women completely differently than men, and we're looking at what women are grappling with.

all week long we're highlighting women's health and today we're focusing on the mind the mental health crisis can affect women completely differently than men in many cases and this morning we are joined by dr dana laplatogini a clinical assistant professor at the university of michigan thank you so much for being with us this morning thank you for having me let's start off talking about really what women are grappling with in many cases right now the pandemic impacting obviously everybody but for women there's often social isolation juggling work and child care women are also more likely to be involved in caring for their older parents so what's the mental toll of dealing with all of this and what advice do you have for somebody trying to balance it all in the middle of this crisis yeah i mean it's i agree this pandemic definitely just adds a whole other layer to the stress that many women may already have been dealing with right that's just a really stressful time like you already highlighted uh families have lost income sometimes there's a lack of child care like you already said and look many essential workers continue to face a number of challenges including a greater risk of contracting the virus so i think in general it's just really important to highlight that uh it's a stressful time and it's okay and to reassure ourselves so what i think about in the middle of all of this is the three r's reassure routines and regulate so it's okay for us to just reassure ourselves that look this is a hard time and it's okay um and that we've gotten through hard times before um being mindful about our daily routines and what we're doing to take care of ourselves including diet exercise a healthy balanced diet exercise and sleep and then figuring out how you regulate yourself and your emotions like what works for you those are some quick tips that i could think about right now yeah and what works for you may not work for other people so you kind of do have to know yourself good advice there so women are diagnosed with depression and anxiety more often than men why is that yeah you know that is true depression and anxiety are more common in women there are several reasons out there uh probably way too many to dig too deep during our short time together but clearly you know clearly biological differences right so you know there are hormonal differences um between men and women also psychological differences and and some socio-cultural differences as well that may play a role so researchers have found that gender differences in socialization could be playing a role there in general girls you know are socialized to be a bit more nurturing and sensitive to the opinions of others and look we already highlighted it right woman we're often wearing many many hats and just trying to find that balance is really important i mean when we showed that that graphic there 12 million women a year uh can be diagnosed with clinical depression those numbers are staggering so what are indicators that a woman might need to ask for some professional help that's an excellent question i think it's really important to highlight a few things so if you're feeling really sad or down for a significant period of time more than two weeks if you're getting too much sleep or too little sleep if you notice a change in energy either it's too low or you're feeling really restless changes in appetite or significant weight loss or weight gain you know excessive feelings of guilt or hopelessness an excessive use of alcohol or drugs those are things to highlight but i think the biggest thing to highlight is impairment so if you notice that you're not functioning at the level you should be then we have to seek out help and get you to you know the right level of functioning for you and it is absolutely fine to ask for help it is it is a good thing to do dr dana la platte ogne thank you so much for joining us this morning and sharing your expertise on this very important topic thank you

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@angelawesel4654 28 August 2025 at 11:06

You know I would feel much better if I didnt have to worry about my granddaughters being subject to Doctors who are allowed to do FGM on them in the name of islam !?!!!! Or Rapist who get out of jail free due to the nation of islam right to commit these crimes on women in our State !! So Ill feel better if you send those sick doctors and the nation of islam back to thier nasty countries. Js🇺🇸