Lisa Damour, UNDER PRESSURE

Lisa Damour, UNDER PRESSURE

Lisa: Anxiety disorders have always been disproportionally diagnosed in girls and women as opposed to boys and men. The reason for this is we think it's largely socialization, that girls and women are taught that if they're distressed, to sort of collapse in on themselves, depression, anxiety, things like that. Boys and men are taught by the culture when they're distressed, to act out, to mix it up, to get themselves in trouble. It's not that boys and men don't suffer. They don't suffer as often as girls and women suffer in terms of feeling highly anxious and having, the technical term is internalizing disorders, holding it all in. There's that reason. The other thing, though, if we think about why is it getting worse, what's happening now, why does this feel like it's taken this particular shape? I worry that we keep adding stuff to girls' plates and nothing's coming off. Girls are crushing it academically. And they're incredible athletes. And they're incredible musicians. And they're starting businesses. And they're still supposed to be cute. And they're still supposed to be nice. And they're supposed to still make everyone feel comfortable and maintain a whole lot of social ties and be agreeable doing the things we ask them to do. I think that piece, not that I want to go back to some retrograde moment when girls don't have all the opportunities they have available, but all of this opportunity without the permission to excuse oneself from culture pressures to be adorable or thin or pleasant all the time isn't a great recipe for girls.