Improving men's mental health involves difficult conversations

Amid the stigma surrounding mental health, it's time for men to shatter the silence and confront their emotional struggles, writes Suntosh R Pillay, as we observe Men's Health Month

- Suntosh R Pillay

OVER the years, I have seen far more women in my consulting room than men.

Although men do attend psychotherapy sessions, it is far more common that women seek psychological help when life's problems become too much to handle. This is a surprising and contradictory situation.

Statistics show that even though more women end up in the emergency room of hospitals for suicide attempts, more men actually die from suicide in South Africa.

One of the reasons for this disparity is that men usually use more lethal methods of self-harm and hide their despair from friends and family. You would expect that if so many men find themselves alone and broken, that they would reach out for appropriate help, rather than suffer in silence.

Sadly, society shapes men to believe that they are invincible superheroes who should hide their vulnerabilities and pretend to be coping.

This is obviously not healthy. We need to gently encourage all men to become comfortable with exploring difficult feelings, past mistakes, failed dreams, unfulfilled relationships, and dangerous coping mechanisms, such as anger, drugs, alcohol, and violence.