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International Men’s Day: “Hear Them Out”

Mental health concerns are experienced by everyone irrespective of caste, creed and gender. Women’s mental health concerns are discussed more openly as they are willing to share their experiences. On the contrary, Men’s Mental health is seldom spoken about. This is because most of the time Men too have to face the brunt of ridiculous stereotypes like:

 “Men should be strong”.   | “Showing emotions is only for the weak.” | “In order to be successful, you always need to be in control and level-headed.”

While growing up, boys internalize these messages and it becomes very challenging for them to open up about their emotional state to anybody.

Like women, men too, play different roles  in their life including that of a working professional, a husband, a son, and a father.  In spite of these numerous roles, they have to also deal with the societal expectations that come with these roles which get exhausting after a period of time. 

As much as violence against women is true and widely prevalent; violence against men is also an issue that needs to be addressed

Most of the time, men’s mental health is compromised because of the lack of access to a safe space within their support system. Even though men are skilled at networking and have huge friend circles, the social norm doesn’t allow them to be sensitive enough where they can share their mental health struggles. Men fear being judged because going through such an experience is looked down upon and not considered “cool” for the “Macho” image that has been socially constructed for them. 

It’s the need of the hour to help create such supportive spaces for men. Awareness and support services need to be made available to them as well.

This International Men’s Day let’s pledge to hear our men out.

To know more on how men can be supported, tune in to our YouTube channel @plugH 

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