By EK Wills
We have heard it all before: hysterical and emotional women.
Emotions are there as a guide to inform us of the body’s needs and, if ignored, can lead to stress, burnout, and mental health issues.
In this new era of validation of gender, surely this needs to include the strengths that women, as a generalisation, can tap into social nuances and bring intuitive responses to circumstance.
Currently, the pursuit of the bottom line tends to sideline these qualities. The upholding of rational thought as an ideal is actually a patriarchal construct that serves to further denigrate the concept of emotion as valid. While men may be the purveyors of this school of thought, women also subjugate and contort to fit into the power model to play on the same field. We expect to have to defend our position to those without lived experience but also witness, are subject to and even become the hardened superwoman. We mistakenly believe these women to be allies of our sisterhood, but encounter division and foul play. Too often women claim to be supports but still play the game by the traditional rules, perhaps also from a defensive position.
The recent highlighting of gender-based vitriol towards public figures exemplifies the depth that lack of understanding that exists in our society by all players.
Why is it that faced with the trauma history for both Heard and Depp, and the development of maladaptive survival strategies such as emotional distress and avoidance with substance use, we as a collective are quick to judge and cast our verdict on the Amber Heard’s, siding with the Johnny Depp’s? To highlight the complexity of the constructs of the concept of trauma in context of personality disorder and complex PTSD phenomena, a well-known psychiatrist and educator, Senil Rege, has analysed them in the Heard Depp trial in his YouTube presentation.
The players in the Heard Depp trial each had a role and contributed to the destructive relationship and no one emerges triumphant except the social media machines that churn out the memes to the beat of the trial. Meanwhile, women appear to suffer with under recognised and poorly perceived mental health disturbances.
Psychiatrist and Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, is an internationally renowned psychiatrist and expert on hormones. Her keynote at the recent psychiatrist college (RANZCP) congress talked about hormones and the ‘gender-blind’ approach that includes stigmatising, and often victim blaming, of women with trauma history.
Currently, the understanding of hormones in a women’s journey is in its infancy. Kulkarni and her team at the HER Centre (Health Education Research Centre) aim to enhance research into the field of women’s mental health, and understand hormonal influences and neurobiology of women. This includes exploring the impact of gender specific treatment for gender specific conditions such as menopausal mood instability, premenstrual syndrome and even impulsivity.
If we as a society learn to embrace what women can offer, valuing their strength base, and with their differences in mind, rather than adopting a mainstream, stigmatising approach, society will reap the rewards- on an individual level and family level for future generations.
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