This article was researched and written by Amanda, one of the Independent Mental Health Network’s volunteers. It is being published ahead of January 2020’s Suicide Prevention Summit.
Masculinity and Suicide
The latest Samaritans Report on UK Suicide Rates (September 2019) totalled 6,507 deaths in 2018 alone, a rate of 11.2 deaths per 100,000 people. A third of these deaths occurred in men, specifically aged 45-49. However, the rate among under 25s deaths has increased by 23.7%, reaching 730 in 2018.
Looking at these statistics it is clear that middle-aged men lived through an era of harsh mental health stigma in which ‘toxic masculinity’ traits were intrinsic to ‘being a man’, restricting the development of adequate tools in dealing with the hardships of life. You’d assume these traditions to be outdated, yet with youth suicides increasing its apparent the stigma hasn’t completely died out, it’s time to make a change.
The term ‘toxic masculinity’ stems from the psychologist Stepherd Bliss who used the phrases in the 1980s and 1990s to contrast negative and positive traits in men. Traditionally, these qualities of aggression, physical power and emotional reticence were highly valued. However, since the 1970’s, many of these traits are often associated with harmful or ‘toxic behaviours.
The Good Men Project aims to form an international conversation about what it means to be a ‘good man’ in the 21st century. Their definition of toxic masculinity is “a narrow and repressive description of manhood, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness – while supposedly ‘feminine’ traits- which can range form emotional vulnerability, to simply not being hyper-sexual- are the means by which your status as a ‘man’ can be taken away.”
These ideal connotations of an ideal ‘man’ has added weight onto an already heavy stigma of mental health for men. The stigma behind mental health was formerly associated with irrational and unpredictable violence and the notion that mental illness is not a true illness. Consequently, the stigma behind suicide has followed into weak, shameful, sinful, selfish etc characteristics. Thus, deepening the grief of loved ones to the deceased.
So why is it so important diminish the stigma behind mental health? Not only does it educate society and act as a means of prevention, but it also empowers those suffering with mental health to seek treatment and help. How can we do this? The influence of social media is very powerful, it acts as a platform to provoke discussion of mental health; enabling people to comfortably talk about their feelings when other means seem too difficult. However, it is important that we remember to stand up for mental health in the many inappropriate uses of the web.