THAT'S MEN:The loss of income or of a job hits men particularly hard, writes PADRAIG O'MORAIN.
MEN AND mental health will be the theme of “Mind week” in the UK next month and within that theme the question of men’s mental health in the recession will feature strongly.
It may be a UK campaign but we need to pay attention to the issues it raises. Mind is an excellent mental health body. Its website at mind.org.uk is, in my view, the best in the English-speaking world for providing reliable information on mental health issues.
“The recession is likely to have a very negative effect upon men’s mental health,” Mind warns. “One in seven men is believed to develop depression within six months of losing their jobs and there is an established link between debt and mental distress.”
With unemployment rising, “Mind expects a rise in the number of men dealing with mental health problems throughout 2009.”
This is not to say, of course, that women are facing into the recession with some great sense of assurance that men don’t have. But it would appear that men’s response to mental health problems can be far more harmful than that of women.
As Mind points out, “Men account for 75 per cent of all suicides; men are three times more likely than women to become alcohol dependent; 95 per cent of the prison population are men.”
My own emotional reactions to our economic troubles have undergone a progression which you might recognise. I was not, I decided at first, going to let the recession get to me. I would maintain a positive attitude until the whole thing was over.
As time goes on though, I notice a background anxiety like a shadow in my mind. Sometimes I stop listening to news programmes for a day and turn to Lyric FM where at least you don’t have to listen to fellows shouting that we’re all ruined, ruined, ruined.
This works until my addiction to news sends me back for a fix and never mind the consequences.
I find that this shadow of anxiety is there regardless of the fact that my business has held up and nothing catastrophic has occurred. But this, I think, is a feature of the recession and of the ceaseless, morning to midnight coverage it gets, as the merchants of doom bask in the spotlight.
And what if the worst happens? Because men are usually the main earners in the family and because we still tend to see the breadwinner role as a male role, the loss of income or of a job hits men particularly hard.
I expect that those who are hardest hit are those who feel they have lost control over their own lives.
I recall a piece of research from the bad old days of the late 1980s or early 1990s conducted among unemployed men in Tallaght. It found that the men’s sense of control over their lives greatly affected their sense of well-being.
Among men in the exact same situation, regarding unemployment and work prospects, those who had a sense of control over their lives tended to be in far better shape than those who believed they had no control.
The lesson, I suppose, is that people who lose their jobs or their businesses need to involve themselves as much as they can in the life of the family, the house, the garden, in leisure activities – anything that keeps that sense of control over parts of your life going.
If you don’t have a family I think it’s important to pursue activities instead of slumping into a depression. I don’t care whether that’s fishing, backing a horse, digging a garden, walking 10 miles, dancing, singing or creating a blog so long as you’re doing something satisfying.
But I don’t want to be glib about this. Being unemployed against your will is a rotten experience and there isn’t a formula that’s going to turn it into a delightful one.
But by insisting that there’s more to you than your employment status, by keeping busy in any area of your life in which you have control, you can get through this thing in better shape than if you spend your days in front of a television watching Jeremy Kyle and feeling sorry for yourself.
Padraig O'Morain is a counsellor. His book That's Men the best of the That's Men column from The Irish Timesis published by Veritas