Politicians are asking suicidal men to talk, advocates urging them to cry, psychologists telling them to be less toxic. Never in my life have I seen an issue so roundly blamed on those experiencing it. Men. This is your mess and therefore yours to solve. Cry. Talk. Toxic. That is your tool set, now get to work. We don’t tell anyone else to go cry about their problems. We don’t label anyone else ‘toxic’. Such an idea would be unthinkable if applied to other groups; and yet here we are, treating suicide, which remains the biggest threat to a young man’s life, with this exact approach. And then we scratch our heads as to why the problem isn’t getting any better. “Keep talking! Can you get both eyes welling up? Are you sure the toxicity is all gone?” I am certain we will look back at these darks days, with hands over our face, and through parted fingers. I am sure we’ll be embarrassed by the language we used, and how we failed to address an epidemic that claims thousands of British men’s lives, and devastates countless others each year. You know that photo of that god awful hairstyle you had twenty years ago, or those tragic flared jeans you once wore? Yeah. Well that’s how we’ll feel about our similarly tragic political opinions of today. “How did we get it so wrong?” We’ll ask. I think I have a better approach to reducing male suicide. Instead of placing the primary responsibility for the problem on men’s shoulders; can we not apportion part of finding the solution to each of us? For men are our friends, family and colleagues, this is an issue that hurts all of us, and it is all our problem to solve. So don’t tell men to talk, cry, or be less toxic. Ask yourself, your friends, family and society – to listen, ask and act. How can we all do better? ~ Images by Calum Lewis, Tijana Drndarski, Anita Jankovic, Sincerely Media, Ben Kolde, Yukiko Kanada. Suicides UK Suicides USA Suicides India #malesuicideawareness #mensmentalhealth #suicideprevention #mensissues

2023-04-27