Helping Your Man With His Mental Health

Women have a natural ability to be able to support and help their partner. The saying goes that a man may be the head of the family, but the woman is the neck: in control and turns his head to what they should do. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know, but what I do know is that there are certain expectations on men that can be very difficult to uphold. Men are supposed to be strong, emotionless and strong. Men are supposed to lead and earn and put up and shut up. They’re not supposed to show you weakness. And it’s these misconceptions that contribute to a high rate of suicide in men.

It’s important to be there for the man in your life, especially if he suffers from issues with depression and anxiety. It’s not easy to live with someone with a condition that is hard to understand and complex, but when you love someone you love all of them – even on the bad days. There are a lot of things that you can do to help keep him standing and stop him from falling down. We’ve gathered a few to help.

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Physical Health. Men who suffer with depression shut themselves away and can’t get out of “The Box”. The Box is a place where you can go numb; you can see and feel, but you’re detached from everything beyond your eyeballs. To help him to stay out of that state, getting him in the gym can help. Pack his gym bag with protein shakes 

and extracts like Tribulus Terrestris so that he can see that his workout efforts are having an effect. If he is feeling good physically, the hormones that are created during a workout are positive ones and can counteract the feelings of depression. 
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Communicate. As with anyone, the man in your life has to be ready to talk to you about how he is feeling. It’s so important not to push him into this conversation and allow him to come to you. You need to be a safe space for him to let out his feelings. The last thing that you want to do is make him feel claustrophobic and frighten him away from talking to you.

Relax. You may not be the one that is suffering with mental health issues, but you are still in the middle of it and that isn’t easy. You have to relax, though, and not overthink his moods. You are not the problem, and they don’t call depression ‘The Black Dog’ for no reason at all.

Be Present. As best you can, you have to continue your life as a pair as normal as you can. You are his constant and his anchor, and if you are keeping on keeping on, he will be able to try and distract himself and have some semblance of a normal life.

Mental health is not a joke. It’s not a tool to pick at and it’s not easy to cope with. Stick with him, though. Balancing your love and lives take time, patience, and willingness. 

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By Iconic Chica Mag Contributors