PART ONE

I had the honour of interviewing 9 men and my first question for all of them was ”Without googling, are you able to tell me when men’s mental health month is?” 1 out of 9 knew the answer.

Men’s mental health month is November. This month.

Unless I went out of my way to check for it, I did not see any information about men’s mental health from men, but I did see posts such as ”no one cares about men’s mental health’‘ when women had various conversations on women’s health. It is not the responsibility of women to spread awareness on men’s mental health, but the men themselves.

Men’s mental health should be discussed in the house, school, church, mosques, football etc and because these discussions are never had, men navigate life in a way that does’t equip them to regulate feelings and emotions which is mainly due to environment & this has various consequences.

I came across YouTuber Chiso who covers men’s health and I reached out, asking his views on mental health he said to me;

…being born in Nigeria in my early years I got taught to be strong mentally and physically. I always say no one is coming to save you. Unfortunately where I was born that was reality for majority. So I have always carried the thought of no matter how hard I think things might be think how harder it is over there. Being in that state of mind you take most days as the same bad or good. Which drives you to push harder. You tend to find most men’s problems can be solved with money. The remainder is just life. WE already know life is unpredictable so the aim is to limit stress as much as possible. You will never have the answers to every single thing. Once you are comfortable knowing this and comfortable within yourself things flow better and easier.”

Chiso – Youtuber

The channel promotes the ‘nobody cares, work harder’ ideology, which has some truth to it. The “hard work” men have to do due to societal pressures is different, but the point is that if you work without ever checking in with yourself, everything you worked so hard for will amount to nothing. 

Work harder, work smarter, and yes, as a man, make sure you’re set, but you also need to take care of your mind. I need you to understand that taking care of yourself doesn’t make you less of a man, it may just save your life.

• 12.5% of men in England have a mental health disorder.
• Men are 3 times more likely to commit suicide in the UK compared to women
• Almost double the rate of men die from alcohol-specific causes than women

You can’t fix a broken leg with sheer willpower; the same applies to mental illnesses.
Each time I see that a young man is struggling mentally, it hurts me a little bit because, firstly, my brother comes to mind, and secondly, that young man potentially has no one to talk to due to the stigma around men’s mental health. I know he’s struggling in an almost uncomfortable way. 
When men’s health issues are not addressed, young men fall into the wrong crowd, which results in years of unresolved trauma when all he probably needed was a listening ear, a hug and maybe a few sessions with a therapist/ psychologist. 

Millennial MEN and Gen-Z men need to start creating safe spaces FOR YOUNG MEN TO speak on mental and emotional wellness.

”No one cares about men’s mental health. No, you don’t care. Your friends are down, you tell them to stop being sad and to get brave. Your boy is crying, and your response is ”Men don’t cry”’ – then when your friend commits suicide, the first thing usually said is ”I never knew” – you did, you just didn’t care enough to lend a listening ear. 

Although this sounds exaggerated, the statistics support its validity. This needs to stop because this could be detrimental to someone’s mental health. Men overlook men’s mental health, and that change starts from you, within you, into your communities.

Using the gym as a coping mechanism is not enough; your problems will still be there after your 2-hour session. It gets to a point where, as a grown-up man, you should be able to regulate your emotions with healthy coping mechanisms because, at the end of the day, aren’t you the ones who told me no one is coming to save you? 

To conclude Part 1, I highly recommend the movie ”Analyze This” from 1999. A mob boss Paul Vitti is embarrassed he has to see a psychiatrist but throughout the film you see him adjust to the idea of getting help.

“It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them.” — Alex Karras

Part two will include discussions and interviews I had with the men that got to be involved in this project, the blog is out Sunday 30/11/25. See you then!