Depression Counseling for Men with Empower Counseling: Depression might look Different in Men

The risk of depression for men is up 69% and their risk for anxiety is up 55%.

Depression is a serious medical condition, but more often than not, men try to ignore the signs and symptoms and refuse to seek help.

Ronald Levant, President of the American Psychological Association, has coined the term “normative male alexithymia” to describe the fact that men tend to have greater problems expressing their emotions. Levant believes that this difficulty expressing emotions contributes to depression and is also a reason men do not seek treatment.

Some men do show the more traditional signs of depression like:

Sadness

Worthlessness

Excessive guilt and self-blame

But men often times express their depression in terms of:

Increased fatigue

Irritability

Anger (sometimes even in an abusive nature)

Loss of interest in work

Loss of interest in hobbies he used to enjoy, and

Sleep disturbances

The symptoms of depression can look different in men than they do in women. Often times men mask depression with unhealthy coping….like working too much, drinking too much, or using other substances to just check out.

If a man is masking depression with drinking or using drugs, it might be more difficult for you to detect.

Untreated depression does not just affect the person suffering from depression. It affects relationships with family members, friends, and co-workers of the individual who is depressed.

Depression can lead to financial problems, and even suicide. Four times as many men die of suicide than women every year.

It is no wonder that fewer men seek mental health treatment, than women. Men in the U.S. grow up learning than men should not express their emotions, except of course, anger. The traditional male role in our country encourages a focus on success, competition, and power. This traditional male role is associated with anxiety, depression, and emotional problems. This is because men are human beings, just like women are. Men and women experience the full range of emotions from joy to despair, from happiness to sadness, from surprise to fear. However, for men in our country it is taught than men should not express this full range of emotions…only happiness, but not too much, and anger.If it is not socially acceptable for men to feel sad, scared, etc, then a man will most likely criticize himself, calling himself weak we he does experience such emotions and try to bury them, or avoid them by numbing with alcohol or drugs.