11/16/2025
Women Really Are More Anxious Than Men — But There's A Really Good Reason Why
Hint: It’s not hormones or hysteria.
By Maria Cassano
If you’ve read my articles, you probably know I’m not a huge fan of the way doctors treat women — but it used to be a lot worse. Historically, physicians believed that our uteruses floated around our bodies, pressing on our organs and making us insane. Others blamed our toxic period blood, and men’s semen (which supposedly had “healing properties”) was the antidote.
Sigmund Freud thought women went nuts because they were distraught over not being men. (He conveniently overlooked the fact that many of his female patients were abused by family members as children.) Freud’s prescribed treatment? Be intimate with a man and give birth to baby boys.
Brilliant! Nothing says “scientific breakthrough” like yet another man who thinks the world revolves around them. As of 1980, “hysterical neurosis” is no longer a medically recognized diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
But people still find ample ways to call women crazy. Drama queen, hormonal, hot mess, unhinged, psycho ex-girlfriend, crazy cat lady, irrational, emotional, needy, clingy, moody, uptight, neurotic, the list goes on.
As a woman who’s healed from a dissociative disorder, I often write about women’s mental health. Without fail, a man (or several men) in my comments section simply must remind me that “Statistically, women are way more anxious than men” — as if that discredits all of our grievances.
Turns out, there's actually a really good reason women are more anxious than men.
Hint: It’s not hormones or hysteria.
