Mental Health in Men | Getting Help

Mental Health in Men

Mental health is a vital part of your overall health, so it is important to know how to take care of it.

While issues with mental health in men are very similar to issues in females, there are still major differences in the way that these issues affect men vs. women.

The type of mental health issues men face and the way that they handle them are two of the biggest differences between the two genders.

Mental Illness

According to Psychology Today “men make up 75% of overall suicides in the United States, with one man killing himself every 20 minutes”.

This is a shocking statistic that shows how many men across the U.S. are suffering from a mental illness of some kind. Often mental health in men goes undiagnosed and untreated.

Mental illnesses affecting men more so than women include obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and drug and alcohol abuse. While women definitely experience these same illnesses, it seems to be more prevalent in men.

Substance Abuse

Overall substance abuse seems to be a predominantly male problem, with “a rate of 3 to 1 in comparison to females” according to Psychology Today. Many studies have shown that men engage in substance abuse due to stress in their life, mostly attributing to loss of income, loss of employment, and divorce.

Many men feel an overwhelming responsibility to provide for their families and to be the primary “breadwinner” and sometimes men that have a particularly hard time with this, or who feel like they might not be living up to this, turn to substance abuse as a way to cope.

Stigma In Getting Help

One of the largest parts of men being the vast majority of mental illness cases is due to the stigma that surrounds getting help.

Much evidence has shown that there is a staggering number of men that do not seek help at all, even if they recognize a problem.

This is even more prevalent amongst minority groups, including African American, Hispanic and Asian men. Most likely, this issue stems back to societal expectations that men should be able to “suck it up” or “be a man” and handle situations like this on their own.

This is absolutely not true, as many individuals should seek help with a mental health issue that they do not have the tools or knowledge to handle on their own.

Solving The Problem

The largest part of helping men with mental health issues is to begin recognizing it as a health issue, and removing the stigma of men asking for help.

When this happens, changes will start to be made and hopefully, lives will stop being lost due to suicide from a mental health problem or a substance abuse problem.