Mental health experts fear depression among young boys and teens could be going undetected and untreated.
A study suggests that “boys are disappearing” from mental health care.
Experts explain that boys aren’t always able to express their distress — it’s not a stereotype, they say, but part of how many boys and young men process feelings of anxiety, sadness and loneliness.
I don’t know if it’s societal expectations or self-imposed obligations to stay strong, but it happens all the time.
“With boys, a lot of the emotions are internalized and the symptoms are the complete opposite; they don’t act out their emotions,” says family therapist Jay Barnett. “They tend to express their emotions aggressively. They tend to be a little more irritable, they tend to be short-tempered, because the model that’s been constructed isn’t really there.”
A study published in the journal Pediatrics found that while prescriptions for antidepressants for teenage girls and women in their 20s have skyrocketed, prescription rates for the same drugs for young men fell sharply in 2020 and have not recovered since.
Experts are concerned about what this means for these young people when they grow up.
“We’re raising a generation of young men who have no ability to self-regulate their emotions. We’re raising a generation of young men who are overly aggressive. They’re going to be overly dismissive,” Barnett said. “We’re getting a lot of young men who are going to become men who see everything around them as a nail because the only tool in their toolbox is a hammer.”
