When it comes to suicidality within men, especially young men, why do we always seem to limit the male experience?
Cheapening, minimising and invalidating their distress, by limiting it to internal and self inflicted problems, to be solved through a mere change of male mindset?
Why, when it comes to solving the issues women face, we rightly ask ‘what can we do to change society?’
Yet when it comes to men, we just ask ‘what can men do to change themselves?’
And please for the love of god, explain to me how calling a man who is dealing with suicidal ideation, “toxic” is a solution to anything?
It isn’t.
Ultimately, men are just as vulnerable to society’s gendered expectations and attitudes as women are – which is compounded by them being robbed of the emotional literacy to understand, navigate and alleviate them.
It’s a double bind that I believe is behind the astronomical male suicide rate, that is only ever *half* addressed.
So is it time to look at the full picture, to deepen the male experience and turn our focus to what must change in society, as well as within men themselves?
Source: National Violent Death Reporting System
https://tinyurl.com/2c9n9kke
Dr Amy Chandler Study https://tinyurl.com/wup9k62h
Image by Tim Marshall, Unsplash.
#mentalhealthawareness