My latest for Well + Good is up: Mental Health Professionals Are Fighting Stigma By Opening Up About Their Own Struggles.
I spoke to five experts for this piece and was pleasantly surprised to find that none of them experienced any kind of negative consequences of being honest about their struggles with their clients, patients, friends, or family. I do think the stigma around mental health is changing, and it might even be changing faster than I thought – at least for women.
In the past few weeks, there’s been a succession of stories published about men and mental health. That’s not a criticism – I think that though women are more likely to suffer from mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, men are, according to this recently published Rolling Stone piece, more likely to commit suicide. They’re also less likely to talk about it or ask for help.
But people are working to change that. Here are a few pieces I’ve read recently specifically geared toward men trying to help other men:
I Treat Men Every Day. This Is Why They’re Afraid to Ask for Help (Elemental, 2019)
All-American Despair (Rolling Stone, 2019)
My Cousin Was My Hero. Until the Day He Tried to Kill Me (New York Times, 2019)