Let’s Talk About Men’s Mental Health… with Men’s Health Magazine
More than ever before, the world is having open, honest conversations surrounding the topic of mental health, and resources have become widely available in an effort to normalize the importance of not only taking care of your physical health but also taking care of your mind. But what about conversations and information specifically surrounding men’s mental health, masculinity, and men’s issues? Based off my numerous internet searches, in many aspects the resources specifically available for men still feel quite limited. At first search, Google will gladly provide you with statistics, medical articles listing depression symptoms, and warning signs to look out for when it comes to your mental health, but finding resources featuring genuine dialogue and conversations by men and amongst one another about their mental health struggles appear to be much less accessible.
In my professional experience working with the male population, it has become clear that many men want to have important conversations freely and openly with their peers about their mental health, but the ingrained social constrains around how men should behave, interact, and show up, often limit them in the way they express themselves. Additionally, since men are having significantly less of these important conversations amongst their peers or through seeking professional help, it has prevented them from developing the right language and understanding of their own emotional states. As I continued to search the internet to find out how men are exploring their mental health, I landed on the Men’s Health Magazine’s Instagram account. Early in the pandemic, Men’s Health Magazine’s Instagram started what they called “Friday Sessions,” a casual and honest conversation every Friday night dedicated to exploring the men’s issues that men want to and need to talk about. In these series, two different male mental health professionals host conversations with a special guest and discuss a particular topic of interest within the mental health space. After listening to several of the Friday Sessions, I was inspired by the conversations being had and felt compelled to share this as a resource for men who are looking to engage and expose themselves to these types of thought-provoking conversations. While this is by no means a substitute for therapy or real-life conversations with friends/family, it does open the dialogue and allows for men to feel a sense of connection and understanding that might not currently exist in their everyday world. Below is a portion of transcript from one of the Men’s Health Magazine Instagram Live Friday Sessions to give a sense of what the conversations sound like:
Host: Psychiatrist Dr. Drew Ramsey
Guest: Co-founder of Whole 30 Dallas Hartwig
Topic: Exploring male kindness, how to improve communication
Dallas Hartwig- “Being able to communicate how you're feeling requires that you know how you're feeling, or you have access to how you're feeling. I think that's one of the other big challenges with men is that we're so conditioned, and so trained, and so taught to like not even pay attention to our feelings because feelings are irrational or their distractions or you know any of those kind of things. And I think even slowing down and like actually figuring out ‘what am I actually feeling here’ because if you don't know that you certainly can't communicate it. So for me slowing down and checking out myself being like what is going on for me right now like why am I feeling so stirred up why am I feeling defensive why am I annoyed? In some ways it takes a lot of practice because we don't, broadly speaking men don't have a ton of experience identifying what it is they're actually feeling and then having the courage to say - ‘whoa I'm feeling really insecure about that thing you just said and like that kind of scares me even to admit to you because in my world insecure means weak and it means soft and it means that you're gonna kind of think less of me’ - like that's the kind of sentence I would put together in communicating both with a friend and also with a partner.”
Sources:
@menshealthmag
https://www.instagram.com/menshealthmag/?hl=en
@menshealthmag Friday Session with Dallas Hartwig
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJy5lYpHUxG/?utm_medium=copy_link