Men’s health isn’t just about eating well, visiting your doctor for check-ups and exercising. It’s also about taking your mental health seriously. It’s about having difficult conversations and creating an atmosphere of support.
Mental health challenges happen to everyone, including men. In fact, according to the National Institutes of Health, 6 million men experience depression each year.
This is a time to spread the message that it’s okay to not be okay. There is no guilt or shame in getting the care you need. Sharing your struggle not only benefits you, but those you love as well as your community.
What To Know About Men’s Mental Health
Many people assume that women experience more mental health challenges than men, but that is not the case. According to the American Journal of Men’s Health, mental health conditions are prevalent at similar rates among men and women. However, male mental health has not been adequately researched and clinicians tend to overlook signs of stress in males.
What Are Signs of Mental Health Conditions in Men?
Every man (and every person) is different when it comes to how mental health struggles are experienced, but there are some trends to take note of. For example, while men and women experience depression, men are more likely to have symptoms like aggression and anger, whereas women are more likely to experience sadness or hopelessness.
Other common signs of mental health struggles in men include:
- Mood changes
- Changes in appetite
- Sleep disturbances
- Inability to concentrate
- Drug or alcohol abuse
- Feeling emotionally “numb”
- Reckless behavior
- Thoughts of suicide
Men’s Mental Health: A Silent Crisis
Battling depression can be difficult, especially if you’re hesitant to share or even acknowledge how you are feeling. Unfortunately, once you push a difficult feeling aside, it tends to grow. Emotions, like problems, don’t just go away when you ignore them.
Men Are Less Likely to Seek Help for Mental Health
As reported by Mental Health America, it’s common for men to experience mental health challenges. Despite this, men were less likely than women to receive help for mental health conditions this past year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
As the National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) reports, this is one reason why men are 3.5 times as likely as women to die by suicide. “Depression can be hard to talk about — so hard that a lot of men end up silently struggling for years, only to reach out when they’ve hit rock bottom,” explained writer Joshua R. Beharry in a post for NAMI.
