Men and mental health: breaking the stigma

Men and mental health: breaking the stigma

Lead Psychologist Jon Marginis

The stigma around male mental health has been a societal issue for decades.

As the perception of masculinity evolves into a healthier model, boys are continuously challenged to review how they view and speak about their own mental health.

The difficulties that many boys and men experience in managing their mental health start from an early age as society often places a heavy emphasis on boys needing to be emotionally strong and physically tough. Although this can be channelled and promoted in a healthy way, it can unintentionally signal to boys that talking or showing emotion is not masculine or ‘strong’. Society has further compounded this by labelling these as ‘female behaviours’. The unfortunate result is the belief that being strong and stoic, is what makes a resilient man.

Research shows that boys who move past this stigma and speak about their emotions develop healthy coping mechanisms, are less likely to experience significant mental health issues and engage in risk taking behaviour and are more likely to have positive academic outcomes and a positive self-esteem.

Encouragingly, in the last five years, there has been a positive shift away from this perception of masculinity. More boys are accessing counselling, opening up to their friends and family and shifting away from the toxic view of masculinity.

Scotch College is a single gender, all-boys school. This allows the boys to progressively challenge unhealthy views of masculinity and take control of their own narrative and self-identity. The Year 11 cohort and Year 12 leaders focused on this shift during Men’s Health Week. During chapel the boys interviewed me as Lead Psychologist to discuss what it means to be a male psychologist, the stigma around talking about mental health and what it means to see a psychologist. This discussion allowed them to challenge stereotypical and unhealthy narratives, promoting the belief that it is acceptable for men to discuss emotions, thoughts and mental health with peers, friends, family and mental health professionals.

Although Men’s Health Week is only one week in the calendar, at Scotch College we constantly reiterate this message throughout the sub-schools in wellbeing and child safety programmes, class discussions and now within peer discussions.

As we continue to see a positive change in how masculinity is viewed, we all must play an active role in encouraging this change. I look forward to seeing the on-going, positive change in how the young men of Scotch College view themselves, their gender and their identity as they make their transition into adulthood.