What can be done?

This is the final part to my previous post about men’s mental health. I’ve asked a small number of men on their experience and although it maybe be a shock to some learning about this, it isn’t to the rest of us. Mental health isn’t a new thing for men, due to the socialisation and the pressure from certain influences, it can be hard to identify and to know this is happening to them. I hope these posts help at least someone to understand or even to know they aren’t suffering by themselves and there is help out there.

What are some of the things you do to help yourself?

Person A:  I kind of covered it but to help myself I have meds and my therapist. I also use the calm app to do daily medication and to help me sleep. Eating and sleeping properly plus doing regular exercise and being sociable helps me stay in a good headspace too.

Person B: What helped me was a number of things working together. We must obviously promote healthier lifestyles, going out for walks and eating well because I really enjoy my alone time in the gym where it’s just me and my workout. But most of all what I found myself to be a huge outlet was writing or finding a creative outlet. Writing worked for me because I was able to express myself and my emotions on paper or in my notes and no one ever had to see it. But once I wrote it down it really did feel as though those feelings passes through my fingertips and out my body or at least the strong feelings did- it made feel a lot better. That as well as watching shows/doing things I liked when I wanted to and not worrying about other for some time. It’s important to be selfish sometimes.

Person C: In the previous question I touched based on some of the things I do to improve my mental health. A common one is gym- but gym is a double edge sword, if I train for the wrong reasons it will deteriorate my mental health. In that case I made it clear why I was training, to feel better for myself and to reach specific goals for it e.g. fitting into my Spiderman outfit. I also embraced more of my inner child and did things I knew I always enjoyed while balancing good work ethic. Thankfully I was always able to speak with my family about my issues and this always helped me feel more at ease and lastly I think some guys should masturbate (or if they have a girlfriend or have more healthy sex) more to release the stress and feel more comfortable with their own body as it makes us feel wanted.

Person D: As I’ve gone through life I can start to tell when I’m starting to slip back into things so it’s less about  helping myself and more preemptive damage control. Like when I feel a depressive episode coming I’ll try and reach out to friends and get outside more and that kinda thing before it gets too deep and I just shut myself away. Interesting that you ask this now though because the last few weeks I have been looking into therapy and possibly taking antidepressants. Also a stat that I read somewhere is that suicide is the number one cause of death for men under 30.