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More and more Korean women in their 30s are suffering from depression, contrary to common belief that depression usually only strikes women in their 40s and 50s going through menopause.
Yonsei University Severance Hospital says that some 330 women in their 20s and 30s consulted with psychiatrists last year, on a similar level as the number of women patients in their 40s and 50s (495).
Samsung Medical Center saw some 630 women in their 30s visit the center for depression from January to October, a 40 percent increase from 442 in 2002. By contrast, the number of depressed women in their 40s visiting the center rose only slightly over the same period, from 817 to 888.
Depression in younger women has different causes than for older women. Prof. Namkoong Kee at Severance Hospital said that unlike those in their 40s and 50s who suffer from "empty nest syndrome," a psychological condition that can affect a woman when her grown children leave home, depression in women in their 20s and 30s is due to psychological causes such as insecurity about child rearing and their livelihood or confusion about their identity.
An academic paper published early this year looked at this phenomenon. Oh Ja-yeong obtained a Master's degree from Ewha Womans University for her thesis "Fandom in Married Women in their 30s and Cultural Politics of Age." Fandom refers to an extraordinary interest in certain famous people or art works.
Oh subtitled her paper "Focusing on the Fandom of TVXQ: The Relationship between TVXQ and Married Women in their 30s," because she decided on the topic after learning the surprising fact that the fan base of TVXQ, a Korean pop music quintet, is mostly composed of housewives in their 30s rather than teenagers.
According to Oh, married women in their 30s feel a sense of isolation and depression as they are restricted to a private space or home after marriage, and this leads them to find comfort by joining fan clubs and communicating with other fans in virtual space.
Some argue that "Peter Pan Syndrome" also contributes to depression in women in their 30s, who belong to Korea's first generation of individualists who emphasize "Me" rather than "We."
Choi Yoon-shik, a researcher at Yonsei University Human Behavior Research Institute said, "While people from older generations made important decisions in their life on their own, like going to college or getting jobs, people of the younger generation in their 20s and 30s depended more on their parents. As a result, many of them failed to establish their identity firmly enough to perform roles required of them for their age.Ħħ
This is why quite a few men in their 20s and 30s also suffer from depression. Japanese psychiatrist Tamaki Saito said that people who are in their 50s now thought of themselves as adults when they hit their 30s, but those in their 30s now only see themselves as adults when they reach their 50s.
Many women try to ward off depression by devoting themselves to providing a good education for their children. But experts say that's risky. Prof. Namkoong said, "Making sacrifices for their children will only worsen the depression by making them feel as if they should be rewarded for those sacrifices." Experts advise that people who are not seriously depressed may find help in joining small parent coaching classes and sharing their problems.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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