One in four women will experience serious depression at least once this year (depression). Are you surprised? Although psychological knowledge has increased dramatically within the last half of a century, depression still remains a mysterious illness to most. It has been swept under the rug for centuries and still is to this day. A major issue in today’s society is depressed people being too afraid to admit that they are depressed. Depression can happen to anyone and has been treated correctly and effectively for decades. Still though, only twenty-five percent of people with mental health symptoms believe that people are caring and sympathetic to persons with mental illness (stigma). This stigma of depression and depressed people has been around for centuries. One cannot just look at depression holistically though. Contrast to the first statistic, only about ten percent of men will experience depression in a given year. Women are twice as likely to experience depression than men and are even more likely to develop co-occurring illnesses, such as anorexia (depression). Men are much less likely to become depressed for numerous reasons and do not have to endure extreme circumstances such as child birth. To find out where all the stigma and different styles of treatment began we must go back in time. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” can take us back to a time where women were strictly considered one dimensional and a strong social prejudice surrounded women facing depression. Depression in women is a serious problem today, from the number of women it affects to how it is treated, and the problem continues to grow every year due to minimal social support and stigmatization that we can date back to as early as the nineteenth century. 

What is depression? To quote the Mayo Clinic it is “A brain disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life.” Depression is nothing new, but was not truly understood up until fairly recently. Up until early to mid-twentieth century depression was still a mystery to even the most renowned physicians. It was not even called depression until the end of the nineteenth century, nor was it considered a disorder. Depression is also much more common than most people know and is much more serious than most people would think. It is said that everyone will experience some form of depression at least once within their lifespan. That does not mean that everyone will suffer from major depressive disorder, the formal title of the mental illness, but being sad or depressed is, yes, a fact of life. 

About seven percent of adults in the United States will experience serious depression within a given year. That’s fifteen million American adults every single year. An estimated one-hundred and twenty-one million people are currently suffering from some form of depression around the world (depression). Not all people are as likely as others though. Women are twice as likely to develop serious depression than men and anyone between the ages of forty-five and sixty-four have the highest chances of developing major depressive disorder (Unhappiness). Women also have an increased probability of developing comorbid disorders as well, such as anxiety disorder or anorexia. Women as well have the extra burden of bearing a child, which adds in an array of hormones and bodily distress that increases their likelihood of developing postpartum depression. In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, we see a woman suffering from postpartum depression and the horrific treatment she is forced to endure.

  Postpartum depression, although another form of depression, can be considered its own animal. About 15 percent of women that give birth or miscarry experience depression. Approximately nine-hundred thousand women experience it in the United States every year. More women will suffer from postpartum depression and related illnesses in a year than the combined number of new cases for men and women of tuberculosis, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, lupus, and epilepsy. Postpartum depression can have serious complications and can severely affect the child’s development and therefore puts them at a higher risk for psychiatric illness down the road. Although there can be serious problems surrounding postpartum depression, only fifteen percent of women receive professional treatment. That is eight-hundred and fifty thousand out of the nine-hundred thousand women are not receiving the treatment they need (Facts). Which means that all their children are also being affected, leading to more and more problems in the future. The best way to fix an issue it to fix it at it’s root.      

Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in eighteen-ninety, a time of impending social change and shifting traditional roles. Eighteen-ninety was in the heart of the Victorian era, which is known for its lack of women’s rights. Women were seen as strictly passive and domestic creatures, but economic and social forces in the United States began the compromising of these traditional roles. This was the beginning of women questioning their intense domestication. As soon as women started the process of breaking free from their domestic identity though, men started doing everything they could to stop it from happening. They would do almost anything to preserve the traditional roles of females in society. 

They began by blaming excessive education in younger girls for the sudden shift in women’s views. This was quite consequential at the time for the female community because they had just begun their campaign for the increase in education for women. Women were not just fighting for their education though; they were fighting for their freedom. Women tried and tried to fight back, but it never seemed to be any use. They would threaten to use birth control and have abortions, but they stood no chance. Similarly, the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” stood no chance against her husband, who happened to also be her physician. She states multiple times “what is one to do?” (Gilman 300), which shows how hopeless the fight against the male community seemed.

 During this time the scientific community was making significant biological strides and men in power were using this to their advantage. They disassembled women’s arguments with new biological arguments. They claimed that women’s ideal social characteristics were deeply rooted in their biology and therefore they could not stray from it. Prospective scientific arguments were used instead to argue for maintaining the current gender roles. Men in power used these biological findings to rationalize women’s domestication and near almost everything else to do with the Victorian era. Physicians insisted that a woman was “Physically frailer, her skull smaller, and her muscles more delicate”. They would even argue that a woman’s nervous system was “more irritable” and thus prone to exhaustion (Smith-Rosenberg 333-334). Women had no business doing anything outside the house. Men were waving their power wand and spreading their irrational medical ideals everywhere. Unavoidably, they used female’s anatomical weakness to explain when a woman became depressed, especially in the case of post pregnancy. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” states “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one …What is one to do?” (Gilman 300). Women were only a product of their sad reproductive system so obviously this could only be expected. Although there are extreme difficulties that come with child birth, far greater difficulties were expected from a childless woman at the time. Men had a lot to keep in check during the Victorian era and therefore they had no time to actually give care to serious problems within their communities. Melancholia, as depression was called during the nineteenth century, exploded during the Victorian era and thus so did the improper treatment. 

The name “melancholia” derived from malaria, due to somewhat similar symptoms and both coming about from someone having too much black bile. Black bile was one of the four bodily humors during the medieval times and was believed to be associated with the melancholy temperament. Melancholia was also considered to be a form of mania during the beginning of the nineteenth century. Mania today is a mental illness marked by increased states of excitement and delusions, the opposite of depression. Mania in early nineteenth century was just insanity and melancholia simply meant to be mad or madness (Berrios 298-299). The meaning of melancholia changed significantly throughout the nineteenth century though and resembled much closer what we consider depression today. Around the turn of the century the name melancholia was thrown out and depression took its place. Even though improvements were being made, there were still serious flaws with diagnosis and therefore treatability up until the mid-twentieth century. 

 Huge biological and physiological strides were being made at the time when Charlotte Perkin’s Gilman was writing “The Yellow Wallpaper”, yet depression remained a mysterious illness. Sadly, we cannot blame this completely on lack of knowledge. Strong social prejudices surrounded depression at the time of the Victorian era and this only increased the severity of the issue. The majority of people at the time were afraid of people that suffered from mental illnesses and therefore never sought to learn about it. People were satisfied with never knowing what depression entailed, thus medical professionals did not seek to understand it either. Nervous breakdowns, another word for melancholia, does not depend on just one circumstance, but psychological, cultural and biological factors. So as one could imagine, once someone was diagnosed with melancholia, the severity of it would only increase. Clinicians during the time had extreme difficulty separating the physiological and somatic, likely from ignorance, which in turn made it hard for them to realize all the different factors that went into depression. Many physicians during the time would, as one outright physician stated in Janet Oppenheim’s Shattered Nerves, “use uterine disease as a lazy diagnosis for any and all of their patients”. Just like in “The Yellow Wallpaper” when the narrator is diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression”.  Physicians were not taking the time to properly diagnose their female patients. This is where we see the problem start to arise with depression treatment in women. 

This is also where we begin to see the disparity between treatments. Dr. Weir Mitchell’s infamous “rest cure” was used during the nineteenth century to treat patients diagnosed as hypochondriacs, hysterics and neurasthenics (Bassuk 245). Neurasthenia is an ill-defined medical condition defined by weariness, fatigue, and irritability. Women with depression during the nineteenth century were frequently diagnosed as hypochondriacs. This was especially true for post-partum depressed women. This is seen in the “Yellow Wallpaper” when the narrator states “he does not believe I am sick!” (299) referring to her husband, a physician of high standing. The rest cure consisted of continual bed rest, extreme seclusion and odd diets, exactly what we see in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Mitchell also insisted that female patients to steer clear from any intellectual activity, such as reading, writing or painting. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” states “[I] am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again” (Gilman 300). His less known, but just as obtrusive treatment for men, the “west cure”, is the polar opposite of the ladder treatment. Men diagnosed with any of the mental illnesses mentioned above were sentenced to intense physical activity out west. These activities included things such as camping and fishing, herding cattle, rough-riding and much more. Along with all the activity they were able to engage in, men were encouraged to reflect on their experiences with writing or painting. These cures were to insure that the traditional roles of men and women remained consistent and to reinforce their role. 

The absurdity of the treatment forced upon women seems unconceivable to most today, but could you believe that some women are treated similarly today? Thirteen percent of all pregnant women experience postpartum depression after giving birth (Facts). That’s at least one in ten women that give birth. Postpartum depression has been historically neglected in the health sector and still is to this day. Many women are told nothing is wrong with them and are told to take rest and refrain from overstimulating activities. Sounds somewhat familiar, does it not? Luckily though most treatment has drastically improved within the last century, especially in the last half of a century with the influx of new physiological knowledge. The main issue is no longer the treatment of depressed patients though. Too many women today are afraid to admit to anyone that they are feeling depressed. If you knew that no one would believe you, would you tell anyone how you were actually feeling?

Comparing women in today’s society to women in the eighteen-hundreds almost seems comical due to the discrepancy. Gender roles, while still apparent, are nothing close to what they were just a few centuries ago. Women’s rights have made incredible strides from the Victorian era. Back then a woman could barely get a job and now we have women running for president of the United States. Women are no longer considered one dimensional, nor are they strictly domestic. Women are powerful figures in today’s age and the future is looking brighter every day for women all around the globe. Women’s rights are not the only thing that has improved drastically in the past couple hundred years though.

 Today depression is very much understood by the medical community. There is also a wide range of treatments, proven to be effective. Current treatment techniques include cognitive behavioral therapy, behavior therapy and psychotherapy, each having different sub categories. Medications such as antidepressants and serotonin inhibitors are quite effective and can speed up the recovery of a depressed patient. Cognitive behavioral therapy is proven to be one of the most, if not the most effective form of treatment and is also one of the most easily obtainable forms of treatment. Cognitive therapy also has the added benefit of no side effects, unlike drug treatment. Psychotherapy is another easily obtainable form of treatment where the physician focuses on educating the patient on their feelings and emotions in order for the patient to fully understand the best way to tackle the problem. There are endless resources available for women with depression, yet there is still trouble. 

It is estimated that thirty-five million women in the United States will experience depression this year (Unhappiness). Women experience depression at twice the rate of men, which is no surprise considering the idealistic view of women throughout time. Women have always been burdened with having to portray a certain image of themselves, something men have not dealt with nearly as heavily. Women are also three times as likely to suffer from anxiety disorders and attempt suicide (Depression). Their increased susceptibility is not only due to psychological burdens, but also physiological. Women have more fluctuations in their hormone levels, which is linked to menstruation. There are extreme levels of fluctuation around the time of child birth, which is why so many women experience postpartum depression. 

With all this knowledge of women and their chances of developing a serious mental illness it leaves you wondering why you never hear anything about it. Eighty percent of individuals affected by depression do not seek care. More than three fourths of those being women. The road of depression can be a long one, but does not have to be. Sixty to eighty percent of all depression cases can be effectively treated with brief, structured forms of psychotherapy and anti-depressant medications. Depression is not something that people need to hide, It’s something that everyone can relate to some way or another. If more people knew how prevalent it was it would not be looked down upon like it is and has been. The key to making strides in the right direction is letting everyone know that there is nothing wrong with being depressed. There are women everywhere battling depression right now. It could be a stranger, a neighbor, or a close friend. Depression does not need to just be a bunch of statistics. Depression can be real, we just have to realize that it is. 
