If there is one thing I am sure of within suicide, it is that I have no idea why men do it. And neither do you. Even those closest to those lost; parents, partners, friends and family, are left never really knowing ‘why?’ Heartbreaking and impossible questions, that may never be fully answered, by anyone. And yet, somehow an entire army of social justice warriors, moral guardians and cereal box psychologists, seem entitled to present their own one word answer to ‘why men do it’ anyway. That’s right. The devastated partner has no idea, and yet some asshole on Instagram has the answer. Not just the answer for one man, but all men, all doing it for the same reason, apparently. So we arrive at ‘toxic’ this, and ‘patriarchy’ that; each slogan doing its best to pathologise masculinity, and provide simple and meaningless answers, without evidence, to impossibly complex, individual problems. And it’s not good enough. What’s more, as a man, I have learnt to sit down and listen when it comes to women talking bout women’s issues. I agree, discussion for women, must be led by women. So the same is true for men. Discussion on men, and particularly male suicide, must be led by men and boys, and bereaved families, and not gate kept by bogus feminist theory. Suicidal men, and the families of those who have lost loved ones, must be our eternal point of reference for male suicide advocacy and research. It is where we must start, and continually return to, forever and always. More than any other, #malesuicide is not the place to make bigoted blanket assertions about masculinity or men. It is a place to listen, without judgement, and with compassion. So let’s do that now. Let’s ask the men dealing with suicidality, how it feels, and what we can do to help. Can you add to the conversation too? ~ Study Images by Kiwi Hug, Gradienta, Ki T Hi, and Sayan Ghosh from Unsplash #malesuicideawareness #malesuicideprevention #mentalhealth #mensmentalhealth

2023-02-18