QSA highlights mental health for men
'Seventy-seven per cent of men suffer from stress, anxiety or depression at some point in their lives.'
Quaker Social Action (QSA) has highlighted the prevalence of male mental health struggles, as it launches an online wellbeing course for men.
According to research from The Priory, seventy-seven per cent of men suffer from stress, anxiety or depression at some point in their lives. Yet men are much less likely to seek mental health support. Forty per cent of men polled by The Priory Group in 2015 said it would take thoughts of suicide or self-harm to compel them to seek professional help. Almost one quarter (twenty-two per cent) of respondents said they would not feel comfortable even speaking to a GP or any other professional.
‘A main reason for this concerns outdated stereotypes about men needing to be “strong and silent” and take everything in their stride,’ it says on QSA’s website. ‘It’s an impossible ideal to live up to. The resulting stress and sense of failure causes many men to experience low self-esteem, anxiety and depression.’
The course is free for anyone on a low income who identifies as a man. Consisting of three ninety minute sessions in September and October, the course will include mindfulness and positive psychology exercises
