Solace

Just when i think i know all there is to know about the crying game (*chuckle*), i come upon an interesting article on depression by Susan Freinkel.

There are way more women diagnosed with depression than men. But some argue the gender gap may not be real. Men, plagued with macho idealism, are less likely to report sadness. Hell, they're less likely to act sad. Instead they mask dispair with rage, which makes for incorrect diagnoses. As opposed to women who have themselves a sobfest.

But the fact that male suicides outnumber females four to one should tell you something.

Men are also more inclined than women to turn to substance abuse. I vividly remember JD telling me 105 times (as if it was only yesterday), "You take away the alcohol, and only depression is left."

As Freinkel writes, in communities that prohibit alchocol - Amish and Orthodox Jews - male and female rates of depression are comparable.

I'm not surprised. If i were an Amish man or a male Orthodox Jew, i'd be depressed too.