Unmasking the Hidden Struggle of Men's Mental Health

Research:

• Men with an eating disorder are less likely to seek professional help. 

• Over 6 million men suffer from depression per year, but male depression often goes underdiagnosed.

• More than 3 million men in the US have panic disorder, agoraphobia, or any other phobia. 

• 2.3 million Americans are affected by bipolar disorder and an equal amount of men and women develop the illness. The age of onset for men is between 16 to 25 years old.

• One of the leading causes of disability in America is schizophrenia. Approximately 3.5 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed and 90% of those who are diagnosed by age 30 are men. Via mens-mental-health

• Nearly 1 in 10 men experience some form of depression or anxiety but less than half seek treatment. Feeling depressed or anxious is not unusual or shameful.

• National Center for Health Statistics, or NCHS, reviewed data collected in a poll of 21,000 men, finding that 8.5 percent had daily feelings of depression or anxiety, yet only 41 percent of those men took medication or sought treatment for the conditions.

• In 2020, men died by suicide 3.88x more than women. Though men experience a higher rate of suicide, they are less likely to seek help and more prone to suffering in silence. Depression, when left untreated, can in some cases reach a crisis point of suicidal contemplation.

• About 6 out of every 10 men experience at least one trauma in their lives. PTSD can develop weeks, months, or even years after an experienced trauma, and can cause a person to relive the traumatic event, experience nightmares or flashbacks, and a number of other troubling symptoms that interfere with their everyday life.

• Men are almost two times more likely to binge drink than women, and are three times as likely to die as a consequence of alcohol abuse. It’s important to drink responsibly and avoid driving or operating heavy machinery while intoxicated.

• Almost 58% of adult men report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days compared with 49% of adult women.1

• Men are more likely to binge drink than women. Approximately 21% of men report binge drinking, compared with 13% of women. Among men who binge drink, 25% do so at least five times a month, on average, and 25% consume at least nine drinks during a binge drinking occasion.1 

• In 2020, 13% of adult men had an alcohol use disorder compared with 9% of adult women.

• 49% of men feel more depressed than they admit to the people in their life. A survey of more than 1,000 men commissioned by the Today Show revealed the truth that many assume- men are much less likely to voice struggles with mental illness, and even thoughts of suicide. mental health blog 
  

Analysis:

The main idea and commonality of all of these statistics that we have found from many different websites and sources, is that men channel these feelings of depression. They do not want to speak out or get help because they think that is weak. Male depression often goes undiagnosed but 6 million men suffer every year. To compare that, that is the city of Chicago multiplied by 3.  No male wants to admit that they are going through these emotions, no male wants to surrender their toughness. We do not realize that toughness is advocating for ourselves when needed. Toughness is giving ourselves a chance to get better, and toughness is giving our friends and family the opportunity to be there for us when we need to be. Most men do not understand that concept. It could be for a number of reasons: culture, meaning we grew up in a way where we are always supposed to be the tough guy, “wear the pants”. Our egos, we think we can handle all the weight and there is no need to step back and evaluate our mental health. And, our insecurity, if we are not comfortable with our own masculinity, we can not expect ourselves to go out of our way to get ourselves help. These statistics ultimately are able to demonstrate that there is a wide range of stigma on males asking for help. We need to recognize that asking for help is staying strong and being the tough guy. We need to change the culture on men's mental health.