Men commit suicide 4 times as many as women and when they decide to self terminate, they mean business. Men tend to be more likely to go to extremes in a very aggressive manner when they attempt suicide. And they usually succeed.
Women make more suicide attempts but men are more lethal right away. They do not want to fail. They do not want to talk about it. They do not want to get counseling and understand their feelings. If they see no way out, they want out. If a man you love is seriously depressed and despairing, beware.
Men have always been more likely to be more physical in their reactions. It’s part of the male mystique. From the time they are young, they are taught to play sports and be aggressive, to act out, to get things done. Men are also more likely to use alcohol or drugs before they try to kill themselves. It’s so much easier to put a gun to your head when you are stoned. It is so much easier to run into an embankment when you are drunk. Call it Dutch courage, call it losing inhibitions, but it makes the deed easier to do.
When the restraint is off, the thoughts are dark, and the situation bad and getting worse, a man can pull the trigger under the influence pretty quickly. And it’s a fact , according to the National Institute of Health, that men tend to use alcohol and drugs moreso and more often than women.
One key reason men are more on target and determined when they head towards suicide is that they do not like to talk about their feelings. Women tend to share their feelings with other women and get support and consolation. Men are stoic, especially true when they are feeling helpless and hopeless. Few men have conversations with other men about how depressed they are and how vulnerable they feel. It is considered unmanly. They don’t even want to tell their doctors how bad they feel. They go into the office with chest pains or stomach pains but they don’t talk about stress or anxiety. They are irritable. Men tend to feel that it would be effeminate to start complaining about sadness and loss.
So men do not deal well with depression, don’t want to get help for it, and when they try to end their lives, they often succeed the ‘first time’. Very few times will you see a man at an emergency ward with scratches on his wrist. You will more likely see a man who has stabbed himself in the stomach. That’s the ‘macho’ thing to do.
Here are major risk factors you need to know about male suicide:
Age: Men in their early twenties and over 70 are at greatest risk.
Unemployment: No job, no reason to live, no respect
Living alone, especially widowers
Chronic illness, chronic pain. Again, men try to go it alone.
Occupations can be a killer. Doctors, dentists, and police officers are well represented.
Those with the means, gun owners, for example, are good to go.
Men mean business when they become suicidal. They refuse to discuss their feelings, ask for help, or share their despair. If you are a man who is suicidal or think that someone you love could be, please e mail your stories and we will try to offer some solutions.
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