According to Anxiety and Depression Association of America, one in ten men will experience depression or anxiety. The study also found less men will receive treatment. June was Men’s Mental Health Month. A month dedicated to breaking the stigmas associated with men and their mental health.

UPMC Clinical Psychologist Dr. Rafat Omar calls it the silent killer.

“It is an important topic. Talking about it is beneficial because it normalizes the idea of not only men struggling with mental health conditions, but also talking about it with their friends, family, and going to get treatment. It’s really the term silent killer. Just the rates of men committing suicide is disproportionately high compared to women, and a lot of times, people in their lives have no idea anything was going on.”

According to Dr. Omar, phrases like “man up” has contributed the stigma that comes along with men and their mental health. He says the he stigma makes it much harder for men to talk about their feelings and seek help.

“It creates this idea that if you’re struggling emotionally in any way that, you know, somehow you’re weak… or that you’re not depressed. You just need to work harder. You’re just being a scaredy cat, you know whatever language they use. But then people, when they’re flooded with these messages, they start to believe it. And that causes them to not want to open up when things are going wrong, because they know the response they’re going to get is negative.”

Dr. Omar provided a lot of insight when it comes to Men's Mental Health on Monday's program.

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