mental health, men and the pandemic

Emmet Lyons from CNN recently released an article, "The Covid pandemic is highlighting men's mental health and how they can seek help."  It's surprising that so many deem counseling as something only for those "mentally ill," or "with major issues."  This is one of the stigmas that unfortunately keep individuals at bay from seeking counseling.  Alongside that stigma is the masculine culture that so many have grown up in--the culture that says that men should "be strong" and "never show weakness."  It's become a toxic culture that has only damaged men's ability to effectively deal with the stressors that life presents.  And the statistics are clear, men are far more unlikely to ask for help than women.

If the pandemic revealed anything that we can take forward in the years ahead, it is just how fragile life is and just how important our health is (physical, emotional and social).  It revealed that we should be proactive in dealing with the challenges of life. 

Although a cliche and true, it is never too late to learn to confront our struggles.  This next generation of men that are being raised have to be told that it is masculine to talk about your problems and learn ways to deal with them.  Men should be leaders in teaching/modeling healthy ways to deal with stress.  We need to do better.  We need to raise our awareness of our insecurities, we need to confront and deal with those deep seeded attachment wounds from childhood and we need to learn healthy ways to cope with our problems.  We need to get comfortable with vulnerability because it is within vulnerability where real strength lies because it communicates that we are willing to deal head on with the issues at hand.