It’s Important to Speak About Men’s Mental Health
Mental health awareness is at an all-time high as people are looking for information, support, and therapy related to various conditions. Despite the encouraging trend, certain aspects may get overlooked, for example, what are the mental health challenges that men face?
By Steve George Verghese
Gender plays a somewhat influencing role in the development of mental health conditions and the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment are therefore different. There could be several factors that prevent people from seeking help. For men, however, the most significant reason is the societal perception that they should show forbearance and male strength and not discuss their emotional difficulties.
Why Should We Speak About Men's Mental Health?
Men undergo experiences and respond with behaviours that may leave them emotionally drained. Instead of letting them struggle alone, speaking up about their mental health issues creates a framework of support that can help them cope with the challenges and encourage them to reach out and receive professional help and treatment.
1. Causative Factors
The causes and triggers that cause mental health problems in men are different than the ones that affect women. Financial worries, career growth issues, workplace problems, divorce, and struggles of other members of the family are some of the factors that cause anxiety in men. These insecurities could lead to a bad self-image that may drive them to alcohol and other addictions.
Men are expected to conform to unhealthy notions of manliness such as repressing their feelings, bottling up their emotions, and relying solely on themselves instead of speaking to others.
In many societies, men are more likely the sole breadwinners. Post the pandemic, financial pressures are inflicting untold damage to families and their future. To feel anguished and helpless is natural. Men are also more likely to be subjected to harsh and risky working conditions.
Traumatic events like accidents, loss of mobility, violent altercations, life-threatening events, and sexual abuse are also likely to cause mental health problems in men, but they are more reluctant to seek help for their situation.
2. Attitude for Seeking Help
Women are far more likely to seek help when facing mental health situations whereas men hold pain pent up. They suffer silently as they fear that their vulnerability might be ridiculed or they could be socially isolated. Men are not expected to articulate their deepest feelings, which is why even those who do seek help often downplay their symptoms or issues.
Men are more likely to adhere to the adage of 'men taking care of their own problems' so they are more likely to find alternative ways of getting help. Often this results in self-medication through the use of various substances.
Men find comfort in familiarity, so they believe their friends could help them climb out the hole, which is why they avoid therapy.
3. Signs of Mental Health Issues
Many of the signs of mental disorders are different in men and are often brushed under the carpet as signs of 'men being men'. While the physical and emotional symptoms of mental health issues can indicate that there could be something wrong with a man, the behavioural and emotional symptoms are misinterpreted as manliness.
Men mask their sadness and frustration in aggression. They indulge in impulsive acts, substance abuse, gambling, and so on as an escape from the circumstances that could be disturbing their mental peace.
4. Prevalence of Mental Conditions
There are significant differences in how susceptible men are to mental disorders and syndromes as well as how they try to resolve them. Research shows that more women are diagnosed with depression, but men are far less likely to seek treatment.
It is a similar situation for anxiety disorders where men are far less likely to suffer from it but also less likely to undergo treatment when diagnosed with the condition.
Schizophrenia is a common syndrome that men are prone to develop. People with schizophrenia struggle with interpreting reality due to hallucinations, disordered thinking, and delusions. Substance abuse, risky behaviour under the influence, and sexual misconduct are other common acts that men indulge in.
5. Awareness Approaches
Many of the existing mental health awareness strategies are geared toward being more effective with women than they are with men. As men are trained to fit into masculine norms and not pay attention to their emotional needs, even when they realize something is wrong, they can't express it.
Men often feel out of place or checked out with current mental health awareness campaigns. Awareness campaigns must be modified to make them more engaging for men.
6. Suicide Rates
Another important reason why men's mental health challenges should be discussed is that they are linked to death from consequences of suicide attempts. According to a study, women show a higher rate of suicide attempts; however, more deaths occur in men due to the after-effects of suicide, perhaps because suicidal men are in a poorer general state of health.
Suicide is heavily linked to mental health illnesses like depression and anxiety, and men are far more likely to succeed in ending their lives. Suicide in men due to mental health illnesses is a risk factor across all ages. All the factors mentioned above combine to cause a high suicide rate among men.
Wrapping Up
Growing awareness of mental health issues is a welcome change in the current era. Millions are clawing back to a life of fulfilment and happiness after appropriate interventions. It is time we acknowledge the differences in how emotional challenges affect men. We need to speak up on these issues so that the men around us understand that they are not alone and can seek treatment without fear of stigma.
Steve George Verghese is a trained psychologist with an MSc in Counseling Psychology from the Indian Institute of Psychology and Research.
Content source: https://www.sportskeeda.com/health-and-fitness/6-reasons-why-it-s-important-to-speak-about-men-s-mental-health
