Men’s discourses of help‐seeking in the context of depression

Abstract

Depression is an illness increasingly constructed as a gendered mood disorder and consequently diagnosed in women more than men. The diagnostic criteria used for its assessment often perpetrate and reproduce gender stereotypes. The stigma associated with mental illness and the gendered elements of depression suggest there are likely numerous discourses that position, explain, and justify helpseeking practices. This qualitative study explored men's discourses of seeking help for depression. The methodological approach was informed by a social constructionist perspective of language, discourse and gender that drew on methods from discourse analysis. We conducted individual in-depth, semistructured interviews with 38 men with depression, either formally diagnosed or self reported. The analysis revealed five discursive frames that influenced the men's talk about help-seeking and depression: manly self-reliance; treatmentseeking as responsible independent action; guarded vulnerability; desperation; and genuine connection. The findings are discussed within a broader context of social discourses of gender, the limitations of current help-seeking literature and the evidence for how men seek help in ways that extend traditional notions of medical treatment.

Treatment preferences in patients with first episode depression

“…Since women are more likely to talk about their emotions and distress (Komiya et al, 2000;O'Loughlin et al, 2011), it is possible that the ease with which they express feelings may explain part of this preference. However, even though men's reticence to ask for professional psychological assistance when they are experiencing emotional distress has been well documented (Berger et al, 2005;MacKenzie et al, 2006;Mojtabai et al, 2006;Johnson et al, 2012;Pedersen and Vogel, 2007), it is surprising to observe that close to half of the men in our sample (43%) preferred psychotherapy. Our results therefore qualify the literature on men's lack of interest in psychotherapy.…”

Social determinants of mental health service utilization in Switzerland

“…That fewer men were using mental health services might, among other things, have been due to their lower perceived need for professional help when suffering from a mental health problem (Mojtabai et al 2002), their preference to self-manage their mental health problem (Johnson et al 2012;Slaunwhite 2015), their lacking knowledge about where to get help (Slaunwhite 2015), and more negative attitudes towards professional help-seeking (ten Have et al 2010). If these reasons were relevant for Swiss men as well, professional help-seeking among men might be improved by conveying the message that help-seeking is a "responsible and independent action", hence an action which conforms to masculine ideals (Johnson et al 2012). Furthermore, improving men's mental health literacy (Jorm et al 1997) (e.g., regarding the usefulness of professional help) might improve their help-seeking behaviour.…”

Men’s depression talk online: A qualitative analysis of accountability and authenticity in help-seeking and support formulations.

“…As a result, men enact multiple masculinities, with particular ones being treated as either locally hegemonic (dominant) or marginalised dependant on context (Connell, 2005;Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), rather than consistently modelling themselves on a single idealised male prototype as might be traditionally supposed. From this perspective, qualitative studies have generally focused on health-defeating or 'maladaptive' male coping strategies linked to hegemonic masculinities, such as self-reliance (Emslie et al, 2006;Johnson et al, 2012;Sierra-Hernandez et al, 2014;), not expressing difficult emotions (Oliffe et al, 2010), and risk-taking avoidance behaviours such as excessive alcohol consumption .…”