This week is Men's health week.
I am writing a course for young adults into employment to include mindset and well-being. I am concerned that I pitch it at the right level, so I asked my son for his advice. His answer was:
"You've been talking to me about this since I can remember and my friends work on the tools and they just wouldn't be interested"
My reaction was that they are not my ideal client. I realised I was wrong when a friend told me that the building trade has one of the biggest suicide rates.
My son is a QS and he tells me that the building sites are littered with stickers about well-being, but the men on-site would call you a 'pussy' and suggest everything will be OK after a beer, if you mentioned anything emotional.
We have all witnessed recently Megan Markle and Naomi Osaka being ostracised because they did what they needed to do to protect their mental health. I see lots of posts about remembering to look after yourself and your needs.
But somehow, somewhere what we are saying and how we are acting is not aligned and people are suffering.
People are suffering because they think it is a sign of weakness to ask for help.
People are suffering because they fear being ridiculed.
People are suffering because they feel no one will understand.
And our sons and our men are suffering the most.
We need to change.
We need to accept that everyone is different and have different needs.
We need to let people feel confident that it is Ok to be unsure.
We need people to feel confident that someone will understand.
We need people to feel confident to ask for help.
Especially we need to teach our sons it is Ok to feel emotion, anxiety, stress and to talk about it.
#mentalhealth #life