I have a theory on why 80% of suicides are male. I lost someone close about 5 years ago. The pain of the loss has changed me permanently. I'm more depressed than I used to be and care less about life.

The point I'm trying to get at, is the world being a cold place causes depression. And there's no doubt the world is colder to men than it is to women. People care a lot more about men than they do about women. A quote from a source.

Whether we like it or not, there are different patterns and expectations relating to the expression of distress in males and females. This means that male distress is often overlooked, or seen simply as bad behavior so that male distress is, in effect, invisible. To shed light on male depression, Farrell (in Farrell & Gray (book in preparation)), outlines a 60-item male depression/suicide inventory.

The following 10 questions (Table 1) are taken from this inventory to illustrate the gender-specific ways in which male despair is shaped, suppressed and enacted in ways that create a greater suicide risk. TABLE 1. Sample items from male depression / suicide inventory (Farrell, in Farrell & Gray) __

Do you feel that if you discuss your real fears you may lose the respect of that person? __ Do you “live” to compete in a sport likely to create damage to your body (e.g., football, motorcycling; cliff, rock, or ice-climbing; hang gliding, ice hockey, x-games; highly competitive surfing, skate-boarding, or snowboarding; car racing, or rodeo)? __ Do you have less contact with your children than you would like? __ Do you feel quite hopeless about having a good relationship with your children while they are still young enough to benefit from you? __ Are you unemployed for more than a year with family to support? __

Do you feel that when you ask out pretty much any woman to whom you are really attracted that you’ll more than likely be rejected? __ Do you drink or use drugs more than you feel is healthy for you? __ Do you root for a team with such devotion that when they lose the big one, you feel depressed and sometimes angry? __ Do you wish you had a better relationship with your dad? __ Do your parents have high expectations of you and you often feel you are disappointing them?

The items in this inventory show considerable overlap with the three main elements of the archetypal “male gender script” that has been described by Seager, Sullivan & Barry (2014a) as an evolutionary and universal pressure on men defining how they must live to be a successful male. This script consists of three main rules: 1. Be a fighter and a winner 2. Be a provider and a protector 3. Retain mastery and control over one’s feelings This means that people also don’t instinctively sympathise with men who are depressed because men are expected from time immemorial to give protection, not receive it.

SOURCE: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6021200f7a4e4c01fd9ba589/t/60c8a023ceebac29f5683e8d/1623760932445/The+Male+Gender+Empathy+Gap+-+time+for+psychology+to+take+action.pdf