Empty Nest Syndrome & Depression
"Empty nest syndrome" refers to a nexus of psychological issues, primarily depression, affecting parents, but mostly women, when the last child leaves home. The Internet has many hundreds of URLS devoted to this syndrome and a lot of advice about getting over it, but relatively few reports of actual clinical studies. The topic remains mildly controversial.
Other People Are Reading
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Does "Empty Nest Syndrome" Exist?
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Despite widespread interest and discussion of the syndrome, relatively few clinical studies appear in the literature. An early(1982) academic paper proposed that "Research has been inconsistent on whether the leaving of the last child...and cessation of the active parent role result in a state of depression and identity crisis (labeled as the empty nest syndrome)."
A Later Larger Study also Questions the Syndrome's Existence
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The 2004 analysis of a body of data from a large mental health survey found that parents whose children had left the house had "significantly" fewer depression symptoms than other respondents "of comparable age, income, occupational role and marital status."
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Do Women Get it More or Less than Men?
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Dr. Christine Proulx's study found evidence of the syndrome, but reported that women suffered from it no more than men. Dr. Sara Gorchoff's study concluded that "empty nest" women enjoyed their spousal relationships more than women with children living at home.
But If it Does Exist...
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Other psychologists and psychiatrists, while they do not present specific clinical evidence of the syndrome, discuss it and assume its existence. "It's normal to experience some sense of sadness or loss when your child goes away for college," writes Dr. Amy Silverman, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College Jennifer Hellwig, MS, writing in the Swedish Hospital Bulletin notes that while "empty nest syndrome" may not be a clinical diagnosis, millions of parents believe they'd experienced it or are experiencing it now.
If it Exists, How Do You Treat it?
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To some extent, questioning the clinical reality of the syndrome becomes irrelevant if your last child has left home and you're depressed. You still have to deal with depression. That being so, you can seek counseling, develop new support networks, work to accept your feelings about an empty nest and shift your focus onto new activities.
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References
- Photo Credit nest image by Pefkos from Fotolia.com
