Why men don't go to therapy

The world loves telling suicidal men to “talk”.

As if saying that four letter word to a man in distress, is the complete solution to all his problems.

But what if research was showing us that the majority of men who died by suicide, did talk, but ended up taking their lives none-the-less?

When does it become time to ask: maybe we’re not listening in the way men want to be heard?

Maybe we cannot hear, what men are already telling us?

Well, as politicians and policy makers drag their feet in asking such questions, an entire industry of ‘social prescription’ organisations has exploded onto the UK mens health scene, to create the spaces men have been crying out for.

And they’re not clinical one-to-one therapy sessions in the traditional way.

They’re DIY workshops, or hiking societys, they’re breakfast clubs, footie games, and talking circles; they’re deep in the wilderness, atop mountains, doing laps of your neighborhood park, and in the backroom of the local pub.

Men are already “doing the work”, building the spaces our politicians have failed to provide.

So here’s a massive shout out to the life saving work of these budding organisations, that so many men call home…

~

Research –

Why men drop out of therapy https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34041980/

Suicide of middle aged men https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/ncish/reports/suicide-by-middle-aged-men/