Growing awareness
of mental illness in
men’s sport:
Solutions to remove the stigma
For Men’s Health Week 2014, Pat Mesiti
explains why ‘the blues’ are killing far too
many of our men...
“One of the biggest tragedies in our western world is the pain of men’s health,
there are several reasons why men suffer from depression but it needs to be
more recognised that while women cry, men die” says Pat Mesiti, mindset
expert and bestselling author – and passionate supporter for increased
awareness of men’s health issues.
“Male suicide rates in Australia are far too high.” says Mesiti who worked for
years as the Executive Director of Teen Challenge helping rehabilitate 400
young men with addiction issues. Of all deaths classified as suicide in 2010,
over three-quarters (77%) were males, making suicide the 10th leading cause
of death for men. Male suicide occurs at a much higher rate than that for
females. In 2010, the age standardised male suicide rate was 16.4 deaths per
100,000 males compared to the female rate of 4.8 deaths per 100,000 females.
But why this disparity between gender?
“When women have something pressing on their mind, more often or not
it comes out over the phone or a walk with their girlfriends and can be
processed with the help of others. In a man’s world, unfortunately it often
ends up bottled up and they feel they are weak if they expose themselves as
vulnerable. It’s a very unfortunate part of our culture here in Australia.” says
Mesiti.
“There’s also the remnants of our past patriarchal society where a significant
loss makes a man feel worthless. There’s still that hunter-gatherer biological
expectation men place upon themselves so if there is a financial or job issue,
they feel like they have failed not only themselves but their families too. It’s a
huge blow.”
“Another huge problem is that we don’t teach our boys how to cope with
problems when they arise. I’ve seen it numerous times in my work with Youth
Alive. These young guys have never been taught how to deal with difficulty
- it’s expected that because they are of the male gender they will inherently
know how to sort things out. That’s simply not true.”
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