International Men’s Health Week is celebrated each year as the week leading up to and including Father’s Day. This year it takes place June 10th-16th to raise awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early screening and treatment in young men and boys. STDs, colon health, lung cancer prevention, testicular and prostate exams, bone health, and testosterone screening are all routine checkups and screenings pertinent to a man’s health throughout his life. Regular checkups and age-appropriate screenings relevant to physical health are just as important as taking care of a man’s mental health. Men, just like women, can be prone to mental illness, substance abuse and/or eating disorders. However, men are more likely to hide from these disorders, therefore, giving a pretense that these problems do not affect men, or if they do, very rarely.
It is believed that low levels of testosterone are strongly correlated with depression, mood swings and stress among older men and men are less likely to seek treatment compared to women for mental health disorders and substance abuse because of social norms and stigma, a reluctance to talk about their feelings and downplaying their symptoms. On a positive note, men are more likely to find success in treatment for their substance abuse disorder compared to women. Raising awareness about substance abuse, mental health disorders, and treatment among males and their families can hopefully help initiate more treatment center admissions among this gender group.
Mental health matters
A man’s physical health is as equally important as his mental health since both can have an impact on one another. Men struggle with mental health disorders and substance abuse as much or more than women; however, they are less likely to enter treatment because of the stigma attached to these disorders.
Suicide and substance abuse in the male population
Men make up over 75 percent of suicide victims in the United States, with one man killing himself every 20 minutes. Men living in small towns and rural areas have particularly high rates of suicide. Indeed, flyover states such as Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, and Utah have the highest rates of suicide in the country. Alaska also has very high rates. Substance use is also predominantly a male problem, occurring at a rate of 3 to 1 in comparison to females. Substance abuse is sometimes referred to as “slow-motion suicide,” given that it can often end in premature death for the person concerned.
What can be done to improve men’s mental health?
Most importantly, men’s mental health should be recognized as a social issue as much as a health issue, with attention paid to issues such as unemployment and familial disruption. Additionally, there should be more choice in the formal mental health system, with more male-tailored options that respond to men’s unique needs, such as gender-specific treatment tailored to men of certain age groups. Health departments at the various levels of government should create specific strategies to improve men’s mental health, with the setting of targets and goals based on recent research. This may go some way to reducing the silent crisis of men’s mental health.