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2009-05-11 08:53:46
Men are struggling to cope with the emotional impact of the recession, a mental
health charity has warned.
Almost 40% of men admit to feeling low at the moment with job security, work
and money playing on their minds, a Mind survey of 2,000 adults found.
Yet men are less likely than women to seek help from their GP or a counsellor,
the results suggested.
The charity said 2.7m men in England currently have a mental health problem
such as depression, anxiety or stress.
Men responding to the survey seemed to be more reluctant to talk about when
they were feeling stressed or low than women.
Only 29% of men would talk to friends about their problems compared with 53% of
women and they were also less likely to talk to their family.
Men were also less likely to seek out professional help and a third would feel
embarrassed about it.
The recession is clearly having a detrimental impact on the nation's mental
health but men in particular are struggling with the emotional impact
Paul Farmer, Mind
And 5% of men said they had experienced suicidal thoughts compared with 2% of
women.
A report from Mind, has called for the government to produce a men's mental
health strategy and for employers to do more to help stressed male workers.
Mind said even though men and women experience mental health problems in
roughly equal numbers, men are much less likely to be diagnosed and treated for
it.
The recession could make the situation much worse, with research showing one in
seven men develop depression within six months of losing their jobs.
Some minority ethnic groups are at a higher risk of mental distress than
others, Mind said.
For example African Caribbean men are three times more likely than white men to
be formally detained under the Mental Health Act and are also more likely to be
inpatients on mental health wards and to receive invasive medical treatments.
Identity
Paul Farmer, chief executive at Mind, said: "The recession is clearly having a
detrimental impact on the nation's mental health, but men in particular are
struggling with the emotional impact.
"Being a breadwinner is something that is still crucial to the male psyche so
if a man loses his job he loses a large part of his identity putting his mental
wellbeing in jeopardy.
"The problem is that too many men wrongly believe that admitting mental
distress makes them weak and this kind of self stigma can cost lives."
He added that the NHS must become more "male-friendly" offering treatments that
appeal to men, like exercise on prescription or computerised therapy and
advertising their services in places men frequent.
Stephen Fry who is supporting the Mind campaign to encourage men to seek help,
said: "For so long I tried to get on with my life and career, somehow coping
with the huge highs and lows I experienced.
"If I had felt able to get it off my chest when I was younger I could have got
more of the support I needed."
Peter Cooper, spokesman for the British Psychological Society, said the fact
that men were less likely to talk about feelings added to anxiety and
depression and unhealthy behaviours such as drinking.
"With men there's much more shame about say the loss of a job or the loss of a
home.
"The type of help that men need includes psychotherapy but what they are also
desperate for is pragmatic practical help."