The issue of mental health in the UK has gained increasing prominence in recent years. The stigmas surrounding it have, if not being broken, certainly been eroded, with people as prominent as Princes William and Harry discussing their own struggles, not least having lost their mother at a young age.
However, it seems that for men at least, the difficulty may remain to a large extent. An article in The Independent posed the question, is the UK “sleepwalking into mental health crisis?” Lest that sound overly dramatic, it noted that the biggest single killer of men under the age of 45 is suicide and two-thirds of those taking their own lives are men.
These figures may be well known among mental health professionals, but could come as a shock to the wider public. Yet here is a clear warning sign that men are highly vulnerable, not least because the trait of unwillingness to reveal weakness by seeking help is peculiarly male.
A key example of this cited in the article was the sudden loss of Llyr George, the 19-year-old younger brother of Love Island star Dr Alex George, who had shown no signs of difficulty or distress before he took his own life.
Responding to this, Dr George, or Dr Alex as he is known to fans, has been working hard to address the issue and was appointed as the government’s Youth Mental Health Ambassador last year. Now there is a new prime minister in Downing Street, he is urging Liz Truss to do more to encourage men with a problem to find their way to the therapy room.
He has proposed doing this with 190 early support hubs, which men can access without any waiting times on a walk-in basis.
Among the major concerns Dr Alex has is that men have many of the same problems as women, but this fact is overlooked. Highlighting a prime example, he told the paper: “One of the biggest mistakes we’ve made when talking about body image is that we mostly talk about women,” noting that many men take steroids to achieve an ’ideal’ look and that he had struggles of his own with this issue.
Dr Alex is not alone in trying to tackle the stigmas and myths surrounding male mental health. Shropshire Live recently reported on the case of Dan Reid, a man who has set up a ‘Walking and Talking’ club that regularly holds walks for local men. The idea is that walking itself aids mental health, while men are encouraged to open up while they walk.
Mr Reid, who set up the organisation after seeing a therapist over his own struggles, said there are now 11 walks a week, with these happening not just in Shropshire, but also in neighbouring counties such as Cheshire and Worcestershire, as well as across the border in Wales.
In many ways it is taking the efforts of men who have had experiences of mental health problems themselves or been close to those who have to promote efforts to tackle the situation. By making such efforts, however, they might enable many men to gain the benefits of therapy and live happier – and longer – lives.
