About Male Depression

Male depression is often less understood than female depression. More women will admit to feeling depressed than men, so it's easy to forget that men can have serious feelings of sadness as well. Depression is not an illness to be taken lightly and can lead to health problems, divorce, bankruptcy and even suicide.

Expert Insight

• Depression is a mental disorder categorized by deep and unmoving feelings of sadness, not otherwise explained by a particular event in a person's life. This can cause a person to withdraw, be irresponsible or use outside substances as coping mechanisms. This disorder is known to affect twice as many women as men every year, but many believe this is because fewer men are willing to seek help for it. And men are more likely than women to commit suicide when depressed.

Types

• The two main types are dysthmic disorder and major depression. Dysthmic disorder is a low level of depression occurring for at least two years straight. It is not as strongly treated with antidepressants because the symptoms are harder to contain and don't respond well to drugs.
  Severe bouts of sadness can result in hospitalization. This is often treated with therapy and antidepressants and usually recedes with treatment.

Identification

• In men, symptoms of depression can come out more as anger than sadness. Symptoms may include excess violence, abusing substances, performing reckless acts, avoiding everyone, inability to concentrate and sudden hatred of work or hobbies. Job stress is often a reason for male depression, and a lot of men may have physical symptoms like body pain as well.

Misconceptions

• Men are taught to hold back feelings, and this could be why their depression often comes in physical symptoms first. Men are more likely to see their primary doctor for pain than see a therapist to talk about their feelings. Men don't feel as comfortable as women in seeking treatment for their mental illness.

Effects

• Depression in men can have averse effects, depending on how long it goes untreated and unnoticed. Often it takes a huge event like getting in trouble with the law or getting fired for a man to obtain treatment. This disorder can wreak havoc on a man's life and psyche for months before he asks for help. Men are more likely than women to commit suicide (and succeed) when depressed, so it's important to get help.