In 2003, two mates were having a pint in a bar in Melbourne, Australia. They starting joking about how the moustache had disappeared from everyday life and wondered if they could bring it back. Challenge accepted. But it wasn’t enough to just grow one themselves; they decided to make the challenge public, set up some rules and a $10 ‘entry fee’ and see if maybe they could do a little good along the way. And that’s how Movember was born.
That first year, they found 30 guys willing to take up the challenge. Twenty years later, their movement has gone global and has raised over $730 million AUD (that’s $425 million USD). Maybe most importantly, they’re shining a light on starting conversations about men’s health issues – mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. Too often these were conversations that needed to happen, but weren’t.
Alarming Suicide Rates Among Men
In the U.S., approximately 4 in 5 suicides are men. Globally, one man dies by suicide every minute of every day. And there’s something we can do about that, first by understanding how mental disorders affect men and women differently. Men may exhibit symptoms differently, they may be less willing to discuss mental health and may even have experienced societal stigma around mental health.
As a result, men are less likely to have received mental health treatment than women in the past year. Recognizing the signs that you or someone you love may be struggling with mental health is the first step toward getting help. The more we normalize conversations about men’s mental health, the earlier treatment can begin. And the more personalized the treatment is, the more effective it can be toward turning the tide on the drastic impact poor mental health can have on men, and those around them, including suicide.
What are the symptoms of mental health issues in men?
Men and women can develop most of the same mental disorders and conditions, but they may experience different symptoms. Some common symptoms include:
Unique Experience
Mental health difficulties in men can be pretty tricky to spot due to how men experience mental health. Women tend to focus inward when dealing with mental health challenges. Men can begin presenting symptoms that they then try to fix externally.
While a man might intuitively understand that something may not be feeling quite right, studies show that a man will seek to correct these feelings externally. Looking outward to remedy an internal difficulty sounds paradoxical. But it sheds some light on the defining traits of men’s relationship with mental health.
When dealing with feelings of unease, people may “act out” through a variety of behaviors. Alcoholism, substance abuse, workaholism, even an increase in romantic partners are all common ways in which people may attempt to overcome their feelings.
Compounding this issue, many of these behaviors might be celebrated and even encouraged by societal expectations and others around them. We are familiar with the concept that men are seen as “manly men” if they work to the point of exhaustion, have a high alcohol tolerance, and even a high number of romantic partners.
While it is starting to be recognized that these external behaviors are masks for an underlying difficulty, psychologists are still researching the best ways to preventatively provide effective care. These problems cause mental health issues in men to be widely under-diagnosed and, unfortunately, not effectively supported.
Societal stigma surrounding mental healthcare is a direct contributor to why men are less likely to get help. In the past, society has told us that men are expected to be strong and a pillar of support for those around them. That same society is startlingly quiet when dealing with who men are supposed to turn to for help.
There is also a perception that is slow to go away, that mental health only affects women. This is another factor discouraging men to seek care for fear of seeming “not manly”. According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association, men who exhibit more stereotypically masculine personality traits have worse mental health outcomes than women, or men who do not exhibit these traits as strongly. While self-reliance and stoicism can be great traits to overcome challenges, they can reduce the chances that one seeks out help when it is truly needed.
Get Help When You Need It
Asking for help can be hard for men but, without treatment, depression is unlikely to go away, and it may get worse. Untreated depression can make you and the people close to you miserable. It can cause problems in every aspect of your life, including your health, career, relationships and personal safety.
Depression, even if it’s severe, usually improves with medications or psychological counseling (psychotherapy) or both. Unfortunately, medication therapy can involve months of trial-and-error prescribing, but it doesn’t have to. The new science of pharmacogenomics (PGx) can be applied to prescribing for mental health medications, reducing the average time to effective therapy from eight months to eight weeks. And when you or someone you love is struggling, you don’t have time to waste. You can learn more about PGx and how to get better faster at www.exactmeds.com.
If you or someone close to you thinks you may be depressed, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional right away. It’s a sign of strength to ask for advice or seek help when you need it.
If you or someone you love is in distress and needs to get help right away, help is just a phone call away. If you’re ever worried that someone’s life is in immediate danger, call 911 or go directly to emergency services.
Material sourced from: Men and Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/men-and-mental-health accessed November 3, 2023
