Why Are Women Affected By Disease More Than Men?

The answer, while disturbing, explains a whole helluva lot

Ever wonder why nearly every disease, sickness, cancer, headache, etc. you Google cooly explains in the lede, “Affects more women than men?” Whether you’re seeking answers on common issues like anxiety or depression, or something more specific like Adult ADHD, I can almost guarantee you that issue “affects more women than men.”

---

Good day everyone.

I’ve been in a rut (again) and realized the cause of these impending mental lulls as of late — me.

More times than not, I am the culprit of my mental health masochism simply because I choose to be the victim in my day. The house is a mess…I’m not making money…I’m bored with my life…and on and on it goes.

Only until I’ve exhausted myself in a pool of self-pity do I snap out of it and actually do something about it — aka get the fuck off my phone or computer and venture out into the big bad world — only to find (ironically!) that every other woman puts herself through this eerily familiar mental health loop of hell.

As unflattering of a quality as this is, my self-awareness clicks in the minute self-destruction strikes — yet I don’t know how to stop it, which ignites the cycle all over again.

And so, I turned to a trusted wellness source I’ve come to cozy up to in times of need — GOOP.

Leave it to Queen-of-Wellness Gwyneth to shed light on such a relevant, albeit frustrating, wellness topic: Why women are more susceptible to health issues than men.

Gwen was interviewing actress Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions, anyone?) via the infamous Goop podcast recently (highly, highly recommend giving it a listen), when she prompted a question I just can’t stop thinking about:

Why are women affected by disease more than men?

In true Gwyneth fashion, she answered her own question by stating, “Women attack themselves psychologically…it only makes sense our bodies would manifest an illness from that negativity.”

MIND. BLOWN.

Men, for the most part, simply don’t do this. They don’t berate themselves for forgetting to pack their son’s swimsuit for camp or overanalyze a conversation they had with someone at a party last weekend. They just shrug their shoulders and move on.

In a way, their laissez-faire approach to life is enviable. On the other (more logical) hand though, it makes us crazy.

This made perfect sense whilst chatting with Selma, as the actress was picking apart details of her horrific childhood, including alcohol addiction starting when she was 7 years old.

Through her memoir, Mean Baby (cannot wait to read), she recounts her difficult past and how she overcame it, and divulges how she is now managing her Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.

An enlightening revelation brought to light by, again, Gwyneth, was that it’s no wonder Selma ended up with a Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis — her childhood trauma probably caused it.

While I don’t know if that is the case for sure (obviously), this doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Think about your own health issues right now. From the common migraine to anxiety chest pings to OCD tendencies and beyond, what happens just before those physical symptoms rear their nasty selves? I bet the underlying source is coming from your mind.

This left with me with so many questions under the mental health umbrella — some I have pondered before — but at the tippy top of my quest for mental health answers lies this one:

Does emotional trauma cause mental illness? Does it cause physical illness?

While mental illness is an incredibly vast, vague subject that not even psychologists and psychiatrists fully understand, it still doesn’t make our pursuit to health-concerning answers less provoking.

TAKEAWAY

My only advice for the week is to monitor when your feelings of self-doubt or anxiousness arise — you may be able to catch yourself from spiraling just in time if you can detect the root cause.

See you next week.

Thank you for reading!

Be you. A more health conscious you.

XO, Ash