At varying points in life, men experience stress, conflict and sadness. Regardless of health and fitness, stress happens. It’s an inevitability because life is full of situations that make us feel all of those things and dealing with those emotions can be difficult, depending on the circumstances. When you’re feeling off for some time, it can be quite hard to decide between whether you feel off and you can overcome that feeling, or whether you need to go and get yourself some help to process how you feel. Men are notoriously bad at asking for help when they are stressed, as we are raised to believe that it’s weak and we should be able to handle anything that comes our way. But we are human, and humans deal with emotional and physical trauma in varying ways. Mental health is a very important subject that is not talked about enough in the male community. Too many decades of assumptions and expectations about men being the strong and silent types has meant that there is a statistical difference between how many men seek outside help for their mental health compared to women.

These types of differences should not be occurring and while the diagnosable mental health issues are for the most part, treated, there are many who require psychological help without a clear condition to back it up. A stressful day doesn’t make someone depressed, but trying to recover from a traumatic event or accident could put even the most balanced, stable person in a position of difficulty. For example, if you have ever found yourself in an accident on the road, you would probably visit a site like www.denenapoints.com/houston-car-accident-lawyer and talk to someone about assessing your physical injuries and getting compensated for those. You may not, however, discuss your emotional trauma as a result of an accident. It’s ingrained in us that if we are asking for help, we’ve failed. Mental health is an extremely important part of our development and growth, and if yours is failing as a result of an accident, surely that would count as part of an injury?

There are many myths and stigmas that are attached to seeing a therapist, and it’s these stigmas that prevent a lot of men from doing so. If you are of the belief that getting treatment for an issue is going to be both expensive and time consuming, then you are entirely wrong. Talk therapy isn’t just a treatment that has you analysed by a total stranger and forced to discuss how you feel today. Therapy can help you with the development of coping mechanisms and strategies that can heal you back your usual self, without stress, depression and the risk of suicide because coping with low moods and difficult thoughts become just too much. There are plenty of little clues when we are feeling low that you need to zone in on and fix: it’s just measuring what you can manage. Therapists aren’t looking to ‘fix’ you; they’re looking for ways to help you to fix yourself. Anything that you are feeling that takes away from your ability to function and participate in your day to day life needs looking at and that is exactly what a therapist is for. So, with all that in mind, how can you tell you are in need of an appointment?

Intense Feelings

Getting angry or feeling upset after a traumatic event, or even just as a delayed result of the car accident scenario we mentioned earlier is normal. What isn’t normal is how angry or sad you are feeling. If the anger is consuming you and the consumption is affecting your day to day living, then you perhaps need to consider that this isn’t normal, and you need to talk to someone before you hurt yourself or destroy your own property. Extreme anger and sadness can lead to anxiety and depression developing, and anxiety is one thing that can be truly debilitating. It always seems that the media portrays women as the worriers, the anxious ones. But men can feel just as anxious. Pairing it with anger is not the best cocktail, so seeking help and asking for someone to lean on is important.

Trauma Consumes You

A traumatic event: accident, relationship ending or even a death in your life, can be enough to need therapy. Grief is a very big emotion and it manifests itself in different ways. If you can feel enough grief that you are constantly dwelling on the trauma, then therapy can be the way you can get help to move forward and into acceptance. There are five clear stages of grief, and traumatic events can trigger these stages. To move through them successfully and come out standing on the other end, you need to talk to someone and share the load. Repressing the emotions and internalising them causes a sort of combustion, where one day the hurt and anger you feel will just burst out of you. It’s not the way to react to stress.