MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) – November is Men’s Health Awareness Month and we’re looking at issues that impact men.
In part one of a two-part series we look at men’s mental health and share what mental health experts say about factors that lead to men sometimes being reluctant to reach out for help.
“When you look at the U.P. and our suicide rates, our suicide rates are the highest in the state of Michigan, what’s causing that, is it the weather, is it substance abuse, I think there’s a cultural aspect to it, but all of those things are probably a piece of it,” Dave Aro, Suicide Survivor Fund founder, said.
In Michigan, it’s the 11th leading cause of death. The most recent statistics from the Michigan Suicide Prevention Commission show 1,482 people died by suicide in 2021, 80% of those were men.
Dave Aro was a witness to a friend’s suicide in 2021. Since then he’s founded the Suicide Survivor Fund and has been working to lessen the stigma of mental health and depression.
“The stigma of mental health issues is still very prevalent, I think that we’ve had some activities that have occurred in our area in the last few years with some high-profile suicides in particular that have opened up the conversation to some of the things that cause those issues,” Aro said.
Peter Copenhaver is a clinical social worker for Suunta Integrative Health in Marquette. He says men face societal pressure to be the ‘strong, silent’ type.
“Historically we’ve seen a big problem with expressing emotions for men, we tend to kind of internalize it, kind of stuff it down, not recognize it, not deal with it and that typically is a cumulative problem over time,” Copenhaver said.
Copenhaver says even when men do start to get help for mental health issues, they still struggle with communicating.
“We’ve also realized it’s a problem eventually when men do seek help is, they tend to underplay or kind of belittle their issues and so what that sometimes leads to is a misdiagnosis or an overdiagnosis because they’re not able to be truthful with what they’re feeling and communicate that,” Copenhaver said.
In part two of the series, we’ll share what doctors say about the importance of routine checkups and getting screened for prostate cancer.
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