Men's Mental Health

We know that mental health can affect everyone, but we typically hear about women and mental health more than men. In 2021, mental illness affected 22.8% of US adults according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Women have higher prevalence of mental illness than men. They also utilize more mental health services (51.7%) than men (40%) (National Institute of Mental Health, 2021).

Specifically with depression, men and women have different symptoms. Men’s symptoms include, anger, irritable or aggressive, whereas women tend to be sad. When these symptoms appear, women tend to seek help and men shake it off as temporary anger instead of depression. Since men don’t tend to recognize these as symptoms of depression, most of the time family and friends are the ones to bring up or identify it as depression. Therefore, why it’s important to check in and support loved ones. Family and friends should also then encourage their loved ones to see a mental health professional or doctor for an evaluation.

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