Howell OAM / Barnard / CSM The Changing Man

A Mental Health Guide
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-991001-42-9
Verlag: Exisle Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 288 Seiten

Reihe: Empower

Men are changing. They are re-defining what it is to be 'strong', and are more open to understanding their emotions and reaching out for help. But stigma still abounds. aims to explore issues affecting men's emotional health and wellbeing and provide tried and tested tools to ensure no man suffers in silence again

Autoren/Hrsg.

Howell OAM, Csm

Barnard, Alex

CSM,

CF,

Leseproben

1.

ABOUT MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH

William James

Having some knowledge about men’s mental health gives you a greater understanding of some of its challenges and may help to empower you to possibly go a bit easier on yourself and to take some action towards change.

The key to understanding men’s mental health is exploring the meaning of ‘masculinity’ or what it is to be a man. Equally, we need to consider the negative impact of shame in men’s lives, because overcoming shame is one of the most important areas in men’s mental health.

In this chapter, we will look at the issues affecting men’s mental health, and in the chapters that follow we will build on this information with many practical ideas and tools.

WHAT’S THE STORY WITH MENTAL HEALTH?

We often take our health for granted, but it is central to feeling good about ourselves, both physically and mentally. When you have the flu or a painful injury, you realize how important your physical health is. Equally, when you feel emotionally exhausted or down, you realize how important your mental health is to your sense of wellbeing.

According to the World Health Organization (2014): ‘mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.’1 It involves our emotions (feelings), thoughts and behaviours (actions). defines wellbeing as a state of being ‘comfortable, healthy or happy’. So, who doesn’t want more wellbeing?

Psychologist Abraham Maslow talked about a ‘hierarchy of needs’ and said that, for humans to reach their potential, they need to meet various needs. These needs range from basic needs (food, warmth, shelter and security), psychological needs (belonging, love and esteem), to self-fulfillment. We need to have our very basic needs met to be able to achieve the higher needs.

Maslow’s model leads into the idea that a range of factors influence health, and that maintaining your health and wellbeing needs a ‘whole person’ approach, focusing on all aspects of ‘you’, including:

• Your physical self.

• Your emotional wellbeing.

• Your social self (relationships and connections with others, living situation and finances).

• Your cultural identity (cultural heritage, dealing with racism).

• Gender-related aspects of you.

• Your occupations (what you do in relation to leisure or work).

• Your spiritual life (religion or spirituality, finding meaning in life).

To illustrate what it means to take a ‘whole person’ approach, let’s look at the story of a man called Alfred, who was going through very significant physical and mental health issues:

You can see that Alfred’s past story was very important, and what helped him recover was addressing him as a ‘whole person’. He was helped to connect with the young men, and to feel more empowered by teaching them some of his valuable skills. He regained a sense of purpose and identity, and his mental health improved greatly.

MEN HAVE VARIOUS LIFE STAGES

It can be helpful to remember that men age in ‘stages’. As a man ages, he heads into the middle years and then moves into the more senior years. These stages involve growing as a person. A young man is physically in his prime, usually becomes independent, finds his path in life, and possibly a partner. As a man moves towards middle age, life often becomes more secure, and he gains both experience and wisdom. An older man in his senior years tends to share his wisdom, pursue his interests and enjoy his family.

At each stage, there can be joy, such as starting a first job or becoming a father. There can also be many challenges, such as relationship issues, or finding a sense of worth after retirement. In the later stages of life, older men face their own mortality and experience various losses (such as health issues or the death of friends or loved ones).

Depending on your age and stage, there might be different parts of this book that speak to you. So please focus on the different parts of the book that you think are most useful.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT MEN AND MENTAL HEALTH?

Men and women have the same range of feelings but are taught by society to express and deal with them in different ways (more on this in a moment). Anyone can develop mental health issues, leading to mild or severe distress and possibly a negative effect on how they function in their day-to-day life. Here are some facts and figures about men’s mental health:

• Men experience a range of mental health issues, such as depression, insomnia (difficulty sleeping), anxiety, schizophrenia (an illness with psychotic symptoms including hallucinations and disturbances to thinking), substance-related issues, autism, dementia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Suicide rates in men are three times higher than for women and are a leading cause of death in young men globally.2

• Substance use occurs at a rate of 3 to 1 in comparison to females.

• Young men suffer some of the most serious mental health issues, but many stay silent. Only 13 per cent of young men seek help for mental health issues.3

• There are higher rates of some mental health issues in homosexual men, such as mood disorders including depression and bipolar disorder, some forms of anxiety, and eating disorders. Bisexual men are also at greater risk. Social stigma is thought to have a significant impact on the mental health of individuals identifying as gay, trans-sexual or with another gender or sexual identity.4

• A key issue is that men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues, and they may delay or avoid getting help. Gay men, however, are more likely to seek assistance.

KEY POINT

Men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues due to many social stigmas that surround men’s mental health, such as feeling shame or the expectation that they be in control and not appear to be ‘weak’. We need to change this.

There are a number of potential barriers that stop men from seeking help:

• Ideas about masculinity and that being male means being ‘strong’ and having emotional issues or seeking help might mean being ‘weak’.

• The presence of mental health issues may mean ‘not being competent enough’ to solve the problem, ‘not in control’, or being vulnerable, and this might trigger a sense of shame.

• The stigma that exists in the community about mental health issues in general.

• Men seem to have greater difficulty in recognizing emotions than women, in part because of how they have been taught to push feelings down when growing up, and because they may experience emotions in different ways. Men are more likely to notice the physical symptoms of emotional distress before the emotional ones, so they may not realize they have mental health issues.

• When a man recognizes that there is a problem, he may decide to get help, but when he reaches out, he may feel very uncomfortable talking about his mental health. He may say ‘no’ to the help that is offered because of the reasons mentioned above.

Here is a story about a young man who found it difficult to recognize and express how he was feeling:

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