Along with Pride Month, June is also Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health is a topic that has been brought up more and more frequently with every passing year, especially since COVID and the dark days of the lock-down. Suddenly, there’s been an uptick in people going to therapy, and in turn the public is starting to learn what is and isn’t draining to their bodies.
However, there is still a minority in therapy and those talking to their friends about their feelings, and that’s men. Men are taught from a very young age to “toughen up” and to “be a man,” and this type of influence negatively impacts how they develop. Soon young boys are taught not to cry, not to reach out to friends and family, and instead they bottle it up, for fear of how they will be perceived by other men. Young men are even met with this kind of rhetoric not only from friends and families, but now it is running rampant online, with the idea of “alpha” males vs. “beta” males.
The overall lesson young men are learning online is: Focus on your physical health, ignore the mental.
According to the ADAA (the Anxiety & Depression Association of America) men suffering from untreated anxiety and depression complete suicide four times more than women in the same situations. Though, women are more likely to attempt suicide. The reason men tend to complete the act more than women is because of these three things:
- Men are more likely to use tactics that they know will kill them, such as guns or other weapons.
- They act more impulsively.
- And they show fewer warning signs.
What are the signs? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), men are more likely to show signs in the following areas when having poor mental health:
- Anger or aggressiveness
- Changes in mood or appetite
- Not sleeping or sleeping too much
- Misuse of alcohol or drugs
- Unable or finding it a struggle to produce positive feelings
- Having a penchant for high-risk activities
- Obsessive thinking
- Aches and pains without any physical cause
- And many many more
It is important to note that when talking about men’s mental health, we are not just talking about anxiety and depression. In fact, aside from disorders such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) men are almost consistently misdiagnosed or under-diagnosed in other areas concerning mental disorders (NIMH, 2024).
This statistic is obviously concerning when, according to the ADAA, over 10% of patients who are suffering from some sort of eating disorder are men, and those men will not ask for help. Furthermore 3.5 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, which is quickly rising to be one of America’s leading causes of disability, and about 90% of those cases are men above the age of thirty.
If these are the statistics when men report, what are the true statistics? How many more men are struggling?
The issue with men under-reporting their mental health issues is not just because of societal standards. As mentioned previously, of the men who do reach out for help, many will get misdiagnosed, and that is because of how healthcare providers see them through their own gender biases.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), due to the way men are raised and how society treats them, many men struggle to differentiate between stress and depression. In addition, men are often taught to be the providers. This, in turn, sets them up to have overly high expectations of themselves, and then all of a sudden, they are experiencing burnout with no real way to counteract its effects. Couple that with a doctor who doesn’t view their patient’s aggression or alcohol use as anything out of the norm for what they deem a man to be, and you have got a potent mix.
Yes, it is the man’s responsibility to reach out and ask for help, however that does not negate the role that gender-biased healthcare providers have as well. Data collected from both the U.S. and Canada back in 2020, states that of the men who completed suicide that year, 60% of them had gone to access mental health care services before the act (National Library of Medicine, 2020). Furthermore, many men have reported feeling as if their needs and the severity of their situations were overlooked (AAMC, 2024).
If you are a man, and you are struggling, it is important for you to understand that you are not alone. There are many resources out there for you. Resources that will approach your case with understanding and nuance.
A few examples include:
- ALEC and R U OK? Both provide a way for you to reach out to those who are struggling.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline : Avaliable 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. It’s free and confidential.
- Veterans Crisis Line: Call 988, then press 1; or text 838255. Free and available always.
- The YBMen Project- This resource is both an educational and social support program for young black men.
- Man Therapy Michigan – Their goal is to reshape how mental health is viewed, instead using stories of survival and hope. They provide resources for those not entirely sure where they should start.
References & Other Resources:
Anxiety & Depression Association of America. Men’s mental health. https://adaa.org/find-help/by-demographics/mens-mental-health
Griffith, D.; Ogunbiyi, A.; Jaeger, E. (2 April 2024). Men and mental health: What are we missing? Association of American Medical Colleges, https://www.aamc.org/news/men-and-mental-health-what-are-we-missing.
National Institute of Mental Health (May 2024). Men and mental health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/men-and-mental-health
Oliffe, JL.; Broom, A.; Rossnagel, E.; Kelly MT.; Affleck, W.; Rice, SM. (22 July 2020). Help-seeking prior to male suicide: Bereaved men perspectives. Soc Sci Med. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32736099/