Young men in crisis may not be crying out for help. But it's desperately needed

Are boys having more difficulty dealing with trauma due to the expectations our society has for them?

Boys don't cry, or at least they're not supposed to. Yes, the old, unreconstructed machismo that was once all too synonymous with being a man has been partly driven back; men are more likely to open up and talk about their feelings. But discussing anxiety, depression and mental distress is still seen as weak or unmanly; the pressure to "man up" and "stop being such a woman" remains pervasive. And let's be frank: these expectations are killing all too many men.

In today's Guardian, John Ashton, the president of UK Faculty of Public Health, rightly raises the plight of young men. A glance at Britain'ssuicide rates will quickly dispel any doubts about his concerns: in 2012, there were 5,981 suicides in people aged 15 and over, and 4,590 of them were men. Suicide is now the main cause of death for men aged 20-34, and while the male suicide rate was 1.9 times higher than women in 1981, it is now 3.3 times higher. And as Ashton says, "We're not preventing problems in young people and we're not responding to them when they get them."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/02/young-men-mental-health-crisis-support-cuts