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Published 19:07 6 May 2017 BST
Updated 19:08 6 May 2017 BST
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I spent most of my 20s ‘manning up’. Ignoring my mental health problems, attributing them to weakness, not speaking up, not trying to understand them, simply wallowing in a sense of abstract failure in private, and putting on a brave face in public. I kept telling myself to man up, I ignored the problem for so long that I couldn’t ignore it any longer and everything came crashing down around me. There is only so long you can pretend a problem isn’t a problem until something breaks, and I broke.
The entire idea behind the phrase ‘man up’ has lead to significantly damaging ideas and habits amongst men. Suicide is the largest killer of men under 45.
Four million men in the UK will be suffering with a mental health problem at this very moment, and how many of those are willing to talk to their friends, their partners or their families about it? The bizarre social construct that men are the hunter-gatherers, hardened emotionless shells that bear their own emotional weight is an outdated concept that deserves to be buried so future generations aren’t inflicted with the same nonsensical arguments.
https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/860868043865501696
The idea of ‘manning up’ can be as damaging as the disorders themselves, and a man with over five million followers should, in all sensibility, have the common sense not to spread such vile ideals about subjects of which he has absolutely no knowledge.
The opposite of this bile are campaigns such as Time To Talk’s ‘be in your mate’s corner’ or the work of charities such as MIND or CALM.
It’s listening to the conversations around male mental health, listening to your friends’ problems, being in tune with your sense of self. I am now more myself because of the information from such campaigns, and from hearing people who I admire (Robin Williams, Bruce Springsteen) discussing these issues in a proper and informed manner.
That people are finally able to talk about mental health problems is a gift that we shouldn’t ever criticise.
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