title: Mental distress--gender aspects of symptoms and coping.
abstract: The article examines men's and women's views on their reasons for mental distress and on their coping styles, respectively. The data were taken from written statements given on two open-ended questions from a survey questionnaire returned by 43 men and 57 women who were self-reported, long-term users of these drugs, and from taped interviews with 10 respondents. Men's accounts (n = 25) expressed a layered theory of mental health: alcohol was a remedy to alleviate temporary strain caused by external pressure, while the use of psychotropic drugs indicated a loss of a men's assumed self-regulatory powers and autonomy. Women's accounts (n = 31) were stories of emotional pain related to their caring work in the private sphere, and psychotropics restored their capacity to carry out emotional labor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Abo Akademi University, Finland. eriska@abo.fi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Riska
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ettorre
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs