Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Mental Health/Healing for the Male


This subject has been on my heart for many years, but I have not had the opportunity to speak about it.  I briefly touched on the matter in my podcast with Mike Douglas on Mike’s Open Journal (the link can be found in this blog) but last night I was able to hear from another Mike (@menhealuk).  He is an advocate for MENtal HEALth (his creativity, not mine) and writes under the Twitter name Men Heal.  Here is what he says about men’s mental health:


Some guys just don't reach out. It is frustrating to me because I once spent two years of my life studying how to get men to engage (based on my own observations, other people's input who work in the field, and research). I came to the conclusion that society is so good at brainwashing men to be 'tough' or to go it alone when healing, that some of them can't leave this cult-like belief system. I realised that we need to change how society (and indeed the whole world) sees masculinity. To me it shows strength to share a problem and to ask for help when we need it... whether that's help with a practical problem in our lives, or a mental health / personal issue. That is why I set up the Twitter account... i.e. to encourage men to reach out, and to encourage others to tell men it's ok to reach out. There seems to be a lot of people on the same mission, so that's great.

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