Gender Differences - Signs of stress and emotional wellbeing

It is commonly said that life today is more complicated than in the past, but what are the impacts of this? According to our National Health Report, 42% of people say they do suffer or have suffered from stress, 38% from depression and 33% from anxiety. However, it appears that women’s emotional wellbeing is more at risk with more women admitting to suffering from certain emotional wellbeing issues than men. The biggest difference between men and women is with regards to anxiety for which 25% of men said they do or had suffered from it, compared to 39% of women.

When it comes to recognising the signs of stress, constant worrying was identified as the top sign of stress (69% stated this) followed by anxious thoughts (67%). Nearly 41% of women stated that they thought nausea was a sign of stress compared to only 27% of men. This was true in most signs of stress with more women correctly identifying them compared to men – 71% of women said an inability to concentrate was a sign compared to 57% of men and 63% of women said depression compared to 58% of men.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, employment status has an impact when it comes to emotional wellbeing. 48% of those who are self-employed say they suffer from stress compared to 31% of those who are retired. Despite recent media interest, only 14% of those who are retired said they had, or have ever, suffered from loneliness with 11% of those over the age of 65 agreeing with this.  

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