
"You worry too much" is a phrase women often hear from men. However, recent studies using new imaging techniques have identified different patterns of worrying. It seems that women DO NOT worry more than men. They just worry differently.
When women worry, they tend to use both the right and left side of their brains. Men tend to stay within the left hemisphere, the analytical side of the brain.
Dr. Vesna Pirec, a psychiatrist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago says, "With both hemispheres activated in women, there are many more types of emotional reactions. And women, in times of stress, also tend to remember many more details than men would." It is tough to argue about "what really happened" with a women under stress.
Therefore, women tend to express their worries differently than men. "Women have a greater tendency to brood, with a lot of [emotions] engaged in it," says Dr. Joan Lang, chairwoman of the department of psychiatry at St. Louis University School of Medicine. "Men have a tendency to be a little more obsessive, concentrating on 'What should I do?' rather than, 'What am I feeling?"
THE TRUTH: Women do not necessarily worry more than men. They jut express their worry more. Men may still obsess during the day and keep themselves up at night thinking about what they did wrong and what they will do when next faced with the same or similar challenge.
"Men and Women Worry Differently" »