June is Men’s Health Month, an opportunity to raise awareness of men’s health issues, including mental health. During this month, men are encouraged to set their own health and wellness goals and start creating a roadmap to achieve them.
Mental health is a key determinant of overall health and quality of life at all ages. According to Mental Health America, more than six million men suffer from depression annually, the majority of which goes undiagnosed and develops into larger problems like substance abuse. According to the Harvard TH School of Public Health, men are more likely to suffer “deaths of despair” such as alcoholism, overdose and suicide, and are much less likely than women to seek mental health services.
Learning how to identify mental and emotional barriers, develop a sense of responsibility, and guide yourself toward progress is invaluable. These skills will help you achieve successful personal growth and live a mentally healthy life.
Identifying mental and emotional barriers and cultivating a sense of responsibility go hand in hand. You can’t have one or the other. You need to have a certain emotional baseline: not too happy, not too sad, not too angry. Heightened emotions distort your perspective and prevent you from seeing things clearly.
In honor of Men’s Mental Health Month, here are some ways to take care of your mental and emotional health.
Talk to a therapist.
The easiest and most common way to identify emotional and mental barriers is to see a therapist. Therapists are trained to help people identify patterns and emotional and mental barriers they are facing. You must be willing to fully accept and take responsibility for this in order to make change and progress.
The best way to find a therapist that is right for you is to use a mental health organization to search their up-to-date database of licensed therapists. Finding the best therapist is based on your budget, the type of therapy you need, the therapist’s background, the therapist’s cultural competency, and your personal needs.
Take the initiative to find out more about yourself.
If you want to start your own mental health journey, you can start reading books that can help you gain insight. The book “Mental Legacy” delves into the topics of emotional regulation and breaking mental cycles, with a focus on personal growth. You can also find other options from licensed therapists and inspirational people. YouTube videos on mental growth and success are also a great resource for visual learners.
They must be willing to educate themselves and accept responsibility for their own lives. The only thing they can control is themselves. Healthy processing of past traumas and experiences allows people to understand how their past is causing reactions in the present. With that understanding, they can make different decisions to change and move forward. All a person can do is start to rebuild their confidence and self-esteem and grow as they move forward.
Learn to let go of the past and focus on a brighter future.
Letting go of old attachments and creating new, healthy ones takes time, but the payoff can be life-changing for the man and those around him. The best way to let go of old attachments is to create self-awareness around the attachments and practice new behaviors in real time. This involves understanding and separating emotions from logic. Another way to dramatically speed up this process is with Ketamine Therapy from Daytryp Health or EMDR Therapy with an EMDR-trained therapist.
Identifying these mental and emotional blockages creates an opportunity to cultivate accountability as we restructure how we process everything around us. We can practice new actions and behaviors that stem from what our minds have learned. Being present physically and mentally while practicing spiritual self-care can lead to long-term healing.
Great ways for men to practice self-care are by talking to other men, being physically active, and constantly working towards goals. While we want to share certain things with our partners, talking to other men who have experience in those areas and can better empathize and give advice helps maintain a masculine-feminine balance in feedback.
We all have an instinct to achieve. It’s nothing crazy, but having goals and working towards them does wonders for your mind. And when you start achieving goals, big and small, you’ll produce natural dopamine and serotonin. Staying physically active has a similar effect. Simply getting active, like taking up running or weight training, will have a positive effect on your mind and body that will spill over into all areas of your life. Your confidence, self-esteem, and overall happiness will increase.
Not only will these skills be beneficial in the short term, but they will also leave a lasting, educational psychological legacy for future generations. By starting their own mental health journey, we can inspire young men to stay sober and responsible, seek help when needed, and learn about themselves.
Rudy Montijo, MS, is a passionate advocate for recovery and mental health. With a diverse background, he earned a BA in Communications from the University of Arizona and then a Masters in Addiction Science from Grand Canyon University. Montijo’s extensive experience includes being a former Division I football player at the University of Arizona, a clinically trained therapist, an award-winning medical device specialist, and a professional speaker.
