5 Societal Stigmas Due To Which Men Might Refuse To Seek Therapy – Our society should break the social stigmas and stereotypes for men to also feel safe and channel their emotions in a healthy way.
With the help of a therapist, one can make their way towards resolving certain deep seated psychological problems that they face. This in turn can immensely improve the quality of life as well as make way for the best version of themselves. Therapy can be an important first step to living the most fulfilling version of your life. The support provided by your counselor can help you get rid of toxic habits, improve your ability to make and maintain relationships, and assuage unresolved feelings.
5 STIGMAS THAT ARE STILL ATTACHED TO MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH
Society should break the social stigmas and stereotypes for men to also feel safe and channel their emotions in a healthy way.
The Need To Look Tough
It is a common stigmatized belief that men should inherently be strong and tough, no matter what they might be dealing with. This belief is being propagated for centuries and even though a lot of these things have changed today as we sit in the 21st century, some underlying issues still remain unchanged. For example, some men still think that if they seek emotional assistance from anybody, they will look weak to the society and that is why they rarely do seek help. Keeping aside professional help, men even refuse to share any emotional issues with their families.
Stigma
As mentioned above, times have changed and both men and women are aware of how necessary it is to take care of one’s mental health. But, this does not involve the entire population. Some people are pretty adamant when it comes to being emotionally vulnerable. It is indeed true that being vulnerable is not easy but a big reason of not wanting to seek help originated from the stigmas that are still rooted in our society especially for men. Emotional vulnerability is automatically equated with being weak and weak is equated to not being ‘manly’ enough.
Difficulty With Sharing
Societal stigmas and stereotypes have also made it more difficult for men to share emotions even when they wish to. They are taught from a very young age by their parents and they might teach the same thing to their male children and the cycle goes on and on. If young boys are taught that they should not share emotions because one day they will become adult men, by the time they become adults, it is difficult for them to trust anyone with their emotions. They are filled with rigid ideas of masculinity and it is difficult to sway them when they become adults.
Normalizing Anger
Another toxic habit that the society has allowed men to develop is venting their emotions through anger, rage and by acting out. Our society has normalized this which has showed men for years that showing rage and ager is a very normal and manly thing to do. Because of this, the only way men vent out their pent up emotions is through anger and sometimes it can even become ugly and they might end up physically hurting someone. Anger is the only way they are able to navigate their emotions.
Inability To Show Emotion
Some men have become to used to not showing emotion that at times they do not even realize that they are going through a very difficult time. It has been biologically proven that men are less likely to approach therapy as compared to women because of these reasons. In such circumstances, it is important to make men feel secure, make them aware of how prevalent stress, depression and anxiety are and normalize emotional vulnerability in order to make them realize that they too can seek the help that they need. Home Page 5 Societal Stigmas
