Given the incredible number of women now on anti-depressants and other mind-altering drugs, it might be informative to learn what percentage of women in the work force are on them compared to women who are not in the work force.
Based in simple observation, it seems pretty clear that women who are wives and mothers occupied with home-making are considerably less mentally ill than single working women from similar backgrounds.
There is the hypothesis. Let the science begin!
33 comments:
Which group looks happier: the gaggle of soccer moms with their ugg boots, starbucks coffee and minivans, chatting about shit while the kids play soccer, or the supercunts chugging tequila shots after work to try and kill the last vestiges of their womanhood.
Stay-a-home mom here-- not on depressants. I did have to use them once for postpartum depression but didn't have to use them long. I believe my need was pretty much a hormone imbalance after the pregnancy that needed a little time to resolve, and it was more accurately a form of postpartum OCD rather than actual depression. In the 17 years since then I have never needed them again.
The old saw that idle hands are the devil's workshop are definitely true with regard to women. They need to be kept busy by a man who directs their activities into useful areas.
Just saw this, which is good overall - https://bbs.dailystormer.com/t/just-what-are-traditional-gender-roles/107469
Sahm here too. I had a career before getting pregnant and marrying, in that order. Yes it was intentional at the insistence of my husband. I went on medical leave and never went back. Medical leave was prompted by the need to drop 2 to 3 medications that's allowed me to hold down my job, including Ritalin and Zoloft. Occasionally I needed Xanax to deal with the stress. I raise at my kids now and feel content and secure. I like my character and personality better outside of that environment. An office full of gossip and back stabbing changes you. I believe it brings out the worst of female character traits.
Well, you're probably not read by very many women who aren't sahms, so your sample will be wildly in favor of your hypothesis. :) I'm totally happy at home with my 8 youngins. All of my sahw friends, whether they have many kids or few or none, are likewise clothed and in their right minds. Two of my friends work (more, really, but the two I know most intimately) and neither one has ever to my knowledge been happy the way I am. Friend #1 is on antidepressants, but of course her life choices have nothing whatsoever to do with that. Her career is totes satisfying. Way better than having kids. Of course. Nevermind all the crying.
Friend #2, older than me by a couple of decades, has never thought she had a choice but to work, since that's just what her generation and her husband chose for her (she wanted to stay home, and did until her kids were school age). She isn't on antidepressants because she has Jesus. She leans heavily on her faith (rightly) to keep from losing her way, but working (not a career, just plain old drudgery) has not made her happy. Quite the opposite. It has actively worked against her happiness.
Happiness is not always proof that we've made better choices, but it's a clue.
I have a couple friends who work too. One is pretty even-keel. She wanted to have kids and was unable to carry a baby to term. Her husband left her after 25 years. Kinda sad but she's not the type to hold grudges and they're still friends. She's a generally happy person. Her job is steady but low stress.
My other friend has a high paying job. She travels a lot and has a great boyfriend. She's miserable. I don't know if she's on antidepressants but she should be. She hates her job and is actively saving so she can retire early. No kids.
My wife went back to work after the children were in school. She'd start as part time, the store would quickly figure out how capable she was, assign her more and more hours, promote her and move her to full-time plus as a manager. She'd get more miserable and take it out on me and the kids, I'd point that out, and she'd quit. We did that three times in six years.
After the third time, I put my foot down. We didn't need her working, and when the tax bite and child care was figured in, she was working for less than minimum wage. 'Twas a big fight, but she was intelligent and eventually agreed that she would stay home. Everyone was much happier, especially her. Cancer took her too soon, but we had some good years there at the end.
One thing to note here is that stay at home moms may be from relatively wealthier cohort than average, which could be linked to any number of things. My wife and I have never regretted our choice to have her home with our children, though, and one huge benefit of the stay at home mom is that she's not all worn out trying to do yet another thing. I would tend to guess, though, that if you were able to sort out all the confounding factors that yes, not working outside the home leads to better mental health.
I'd estimate 90% of corporate women are on head meds, and about 50% of women in unskilled labor.
I haven't known a lot of SAHMs. I move every few months so I don't even bother joining churches anymore, and I don't know where else you'd even run into them.
...and about 50% of women in unskilled labor.
Make that 90% again if you're talking about waitresses. Basically the same as strippers.
Single, never married, therefore no kids. No meds here, and only rarely alcohol.
Probably about as happy as a man in similar circumstances, while always keeping in mind the adage that "most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
The point of work is to make enough money to live on without burdening others with one's care, not to give one's life meaning or to give one an identity.
Has anyone ever bothered to ask why men have beards and women don't? This simple difference between men and women answers a lot.
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The point of work is to make enough money to live on without burdening others with one's care, not to give one's life meaning or to give one an identity."
Agreed. Careers as life fulfilment is a toxic nption. It is bound to leave people disappointed when they notice their job is what they hoped for.
My experience is women are generally unhappy whether at home or at work. They always feel something is missing but can not name it. The happy Sahms on this website seem to be religious. Maybe that is the key. I say that having been a militant atheist in the past.
Women complain about everything. Their goal is not to be content. Once content, life will have no meaning. They want to progress from one crisis to another.
Lazar Greenfield made a good point about women who have regular "unprotected" sex: They are less depressed than women who are abstinent as well as women who are religious about condoms. The man's semen has lots of goodies women's bodies don't produce. Following his essay about that he was subjected to an SJW attack and lost his position as president of the American Surgical Association.
Which group of women are most likely to be having regular sex with no condom? Married women who don't have to get up and rush to work.
My mother stayed at home and homeschooled us; when the oldest had finished high school and the youngest were pretty much independent learners, her volunteering at church became a full time job. Her happiness, and as a result, that of the entire family, took a huge dive. She was massively stressed out all the time. She put way too much effort into it, doing 60 hours a week and taking on work that wasn't in her job description but that other folks at the church left undone. We frequently said, "This is why women shouldn't work."
As for myself, never married and thus childless, I only work at my day job part time and I swore I would never stress about it when I wasn't at the office. I think that, while said office is mostly occupied by women, it helps that I'm the only unmarried person, so there isn't the kind of jealousy and competition that can occur. My freelance work makes me fairly happy because it's what I want to do with free time anyway. I do get lonely and emotional, even depressed occasionally because of being an old maid, but I think my Catholicism and virginity (perhaps Artisanal Toad would disagree, but if you can't get married, I'm pretty sure promiscuity, even condom-free, is far more crazy-making than abstinence) make me a lot more content than most old maids these days. If I worked full time, it would probably be worse, though.
@ Artisanal Toad
This is one of the points I've tried to make with my wife. She's a SAHM herself, but she's also on an SSRI (don't ask me why, but I think it's a hormonal imbalance somewhere that is the likely cause). Her fear is becoming pregnant again, and we're already dealing with certain limitations with the children we already have (I attribute that more to the area we currently live in more than anything else). I keep telling her that we can avoid that while still having an active sex life.
So we abstain until we can get into a better rhythm as to how we conduct ourselves. But seriously, it drives me nuts because I know regularly engaging in the act can help her in other ways. Isn't that part of the reason for marriage?
Do those numbers include the ones "self-medicating" with pot, other people's prescriptions, and most especially drinking to incoherence on a regular basis? If wee do, I think the proportion of unhappies (by the way, happiness is probably the single worse life metric) is damn near 100%.
A more interesting question might be to observe the correlation between depression and the use of artificial birth control.
The next study should look at the effects on men, specifically men who are on anti-depressants or are outright alcoholics/drug addicts because 1) their wife works outside the home and/or 2) they work in an environment full of careerist harpies.
My wife ceased outside work after our son was born 27 years ago. Instead she focused on making our home life pleasant for all of us. This was definately the right decision.
Married, no kids (just didn't work out), have a work from home job. No meds, no self medicating.
Feather Blade is right: work to have a dignified retirement, it won't give your life meaning. Family, friends, religion, and hobbies do.
One girlfriend is similar to me, but two others are married with kids and work. They are single handedly keeping big pharma afloat.
Feather Blade, you sound pretty level-headed. The manosphere isn't about blanket misogyny, so I hope you meet a good man if you so desire one.
Just like the average man wouldn't handle a brood of children running around and constantly nagging, the average woman wouldn't handle career life. Of course, there would be exceptions, but they are far and between.
Thanks, Purge. I appreciate the well-wishes.
I'd estimate 90% of corporate women are on head meds, and about 50% of women in unskilled labor.
Based on my direct experience I'd say that the rate for the first group is nearly 100 percent. The higher up the ladder, the more essential the head meds are to cope with the unrelenting stress. Women are simply NOT designed for that kind of environment.
Living in Argentina, we have the same of what you have only decaf. I can atest many working single ssri women. Not as many males
Two words: sample bias.
That said, emulating men in devotion to a remunerative occupation at the cost of farming out the rearing her own children doesn't appear to work well for women or children.
My wife nurtured our sons better than anyone else possibly could.
Old paper abstract.
This paper reviews explanations of sex differences in mental hospital admission rates, taking account of age and marital status effects. Six propositions derived from the review are tested on data from a nationwide community survey of 259 respondents, using a standardized symptom check list. Women report more psychological symptoms than men, but this is unrelated to marital status. It is suggested that being married acts to keep a potential patient out of hospital rather than to reduce symptoms. Whether or not a woman is in paid employment outside the home is a major predictor of symptom levels, especially in depression. Women with unemployed husbands are also particularly likely to report high levels of depression. However, there is no reciprocal effect of wives' employment status on the psychological well-being of their husbands.
The British Journal of Psychiatry Nov 1981, 139 (5) 373-381;
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