Thursday, May 2, 2013

Images of GAD


Images of GAD
            Generalized anxiety disorder is a unique case in that it is racialized as white and gendered as female. Woodman has discovered in reports that “prevalence was lowest in the youngest age group and increased with age: The prevalence in women aged 45 and older was 3.5% for those with current GAD and 10.3% for lifetime occurrence of GAD” (Woodman 3). Researchers also “found that homemakers and unemployed respondents (mostly permanently disabled individuals and early retirees) had a significantly higher prevalence of GAD than other subjects.” (Woodman 3). Since I am unable to find information that explains why this disorder has been prevalent in white, unemployed, older females, I will look to images that depict GAD and attempt to theorize why this disorder is prevalent in this group.
            After completing a search on google images, I found that the majority of people depicted with anxiety were white women. A few results were men, and nearly every single person was white.
(http://www.natural-holistic-health.com/wp-content/uploads/HLIC/5eabfb2483dc42cd5415f8a0f55c6c73.jpg)
            What do images say to people who may feel like they have a certain disorder but are unsure? These images demonstrate that anxiety is a white woman’s problem. For men and people of color, excessive worry is not within the realm of medicalization and can be tackled presumably through other means. These images can be both helpful and harmful as white women’s worry is legitimized through medicalization.

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