KINGSTON, Jamaica — Due to stigma surrounding mental health challenges, men often wait to seek help until their situation gets critical, a delay that sometimes has tragic consequences.

Consultant psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital, Dr Bridget Opiavbe, is encouraging men not to suffer in silence.

“The general truth is men tend to have poorer health-seeking behaviours. They have the belief that strength means self-reliance and emotional control, and admitting to mental health challenges may be a sign of weakness or failure. So, they try to push through and tough it out rather than getting help, sometimes until things reach a crisis point. [But] seeking help doesn’t mean weakness; it’s wisdom,” Dr Opiavbe told JIS News in an interview, on Thursday.

She explained that societal labels play a significant part in preventing men from seeking help for mental health illnesses in a timely fashion that will allow them to receive effective treatment.

“Men may be called soft or unstable because they express what they’re going through or express their vulnerability. So, they may end up feeling ashamed of their emotions and then this keeps them from reaching out for help,” the psychiatrist said.

Dr Opiavbe pointed out, however, that in her experience, which exceeds a decade, there has been a shift in men recognising that they face mental health challenges and often trying to find ways to improve their mental health.

She said that social media has played a significant role in this development, as it gives access to prominent figures who have been open about their struggles with mental illness.

“I think with the whole advent of social media, we’re more exposed, the Internet is more accessible, and we have prominent persons, even from Hollywood, speaking up about their mental health struggles. I think that has helped to kind of shift things a bit and normalise things,” Dr Opiavbe argued.

The psychiatrist explained that due to the stigma, men who are experiencing challenges often express them in behaviours that are typically associated with being masculine.

She noted that a man in distress may show it through anger, irritability, overworking, excessive drinking, drug use, indulging in risk-taking behaviours and withdrawing from loved ones.

“The behaviours can look tough, but they are often hiding some sort of deep emotional pain,” Dr Opiavbe said.

She encouraged loved ones of men who display these behaviours, especially when they are out of character, to take it seriously and gently urge them to seek help.

“You can contact the authorities, contact the crisis line. There are ways that intervention can occur. But you have to reach out. Even as a concerned family, even if the person doesn’t want to reach out, you have to reach out on their behalf,” Dr Opiavbe urged.

“In Jamaica, we tend to watch and wait. And oftentimes, even in our psychiatric practice at the hospital, we find that a person may have been having symptoms of some major mental illness for years, but it’s not until they become overtly aggressive or a threat to others or themselves that they take the person in for treatment. But early intervention is always better,” she emphasised.

She informed that, globally, men die from suicide up to four times more than women, adding that in Jamaica men account for the majority of suicide deaths, as they are less likely to seek help and they tend to use more lethal means.

Consequently, Dr Opiavbe is calling for more mental health education, and more conversations around the importance of seeking help for mental health challenges to destigmatise the issue.

She pointed out that “we are all vulnerable, whether man, woman, boy, girl, and help is available. We don’t have to suffer in silence. We have to get that conversation started”.

Jamaica is marking Mental Health Awareness Week from October 5 to 12, with  World Mental Health Day being observed today.

– JIS