- Approximately 12 million women in the United States experience clinical depression each year.
- About one in every eight women can expect to develop clinical depression during their lifetime.
- Depression occurs most frequently in women aged 25 to 44.
- Women experience depression at roughly twice the rate of men.
- Girls 14-18 years of age have consistently higher rates of depression than boys in this age group.
- Approximately 10%-15% of all new mothers get postpartum depression, which most frequently occurs within the first year after the birth of a child.
- Research shows a strong relationship between eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia nervosa) and depression in women. About 90-95% of cases of anorexia occur in young females. Reported rates of bulimia nervosa vary from one to three out of 100 people.
- Research shows that one out of three depressed people also suffers from some form of substance abuse or dependence.
- Depression in women is misdiagnosed approximately 30 to 50 percent of the time.
- Fewer than half of the women who experience clinical depression will ever seek care.
Here at Open Sourcing Mental Health, we are dedicated to raising awareness, educating, and providing resources to support mental wellness in the tech and open source communities. Some of the most active volunteers in our organization are women, and one of our new projects this year is having some sort of presence at the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, exact details still TBD. If you have other ideas for how we can even better support the women in our communities, please reach out; we're always open to exploring new initiatives.