Men and mental illness & the culture of silence.

Dear Readers, Today’s topic is dedicated to exploring a subject most people don’t want to talk about or rather ignore the truth that men struggle with mental illness.

We ignore that men have similar experiences as women. Some men have or had at one time In their lives encountered abuse, neglect, sexual violence, sexualized by the media, incarceration, a victim of racism, and hide their sexual preference. It’s the opinion of others if a man isn’t humping, in a relationship or situationships his manhood is questionable.

Men have anger and emotional issues, they carry baggage, and feel lonely, disrespect, disappointed, discouraged and unappreciated. Men fear not being good enough, although they are told not to show fear, because real men don’t let people see them sweat. Instead, they should be Macho and aggressive proving to the world they are top dog.

Society continues to turn a blind eye to the emotional and mental issues that men struggle with.In every culture there is a population of men living in silence because there are very few safe spaces created for men to let go of what’s burdening them without the shame and guilt for wanting and needing to step out of the iron suite of masculinity. No one wants to be strong all the time.

We are a society build on the empowerment of the women’s movement because we feel that for centuries women have been given a raw deal and we have. But men have been thrust into the spot light being told that their duty is to be brave, provider, protector, predator, emotionally detached, silent, milatant and masculant. And if they fail to meet any of these standards then they are failing as a man.

To complicate this situation society plays the blame game pointing fingers at the homes, schools, and churches. Wondering why there is a raise in domestic violence, men wanting to be women, men killing each other, men abusing drugs and alcohol, mistreating their families, increased incarceration, the lack of male role models in the homes, poor communication skills. Men are feeling broken, desperate, and hopeless.

Society on the whole is to blame. We have created situations that cause men to carry a chip on their shoulders. We are not creating support systems for them. We are not creating peace inside homes where men can find balance and be open about their pain. We keep choking them with impossible standards and threaten the strength of their manhood, if they dare show any sign of weakness. Men need to be genuinely embraced with authentic love and to know that it’s ok not to be okay. They need to know from the core of their being that someone is sincere about having their back.

My sister an amazing nephews ❤

Because we are reluctant to talk to men about mental illness we continue to create a society for them to be dysfunctional, lost, silent, and to live in denial about the emotional trauma in their lives that need to be healed. We need to create a society where we foster empathy for men, and address the connection to males suicide and mental illnesses. For the women listening to this podcasts, let’s recognize our part in creating dysfunctional men. Especially, mother’s who coddle their male children preventing them from developing into men..Enough with the mams boys.

Until we break this practice of being taboo about talking about men and mental illness, we will exist in a world where men will never understand the joys of being whole, unashamed and free from hiding skeletons of emotional brokenness and mental illness.

Thank you for stopping by dragthepen.