Noise4Boys: Supporting Male Mental Health

The Noisy Movement has been set up by a group of mostly young women. This makes our next campaign a huge challenge- tackling the problems surrounding male mental health. We are in no position to be giving advice on something we know nothing about. Introducing this topic was always going to be difficult as quite frankly, what the heck do I know?

Alongside consent, men’s mental health has been one of the most discussed topics of the past few years, especially on university campuses. We all know it is an issue, we all know someone affected by it. I am aware of the problems around me, yet I have never been sure on how the problem should be tackled.

Throughout this topic, I will be working closely with men that are big parts of my life. The University of Edinburgh American Football team will be helping us grasp the dynamic of an all males sports team and the importance of boys supporting boys. We hope to raise awareness and hopefully some money for worthwhile charities. The only way we can do this as a team is with everyone’s help. Focusing on teamwork throughout this campaign is our attempt at approaching male mental health. Surround yourself with people that support you, and together we can achieve something.

So, take the time to read our blogs, attend our events, share our posts and message us to help give us insight.

We have made a hell of a lot of noise around our previous awareness campaign. We got everyone talking and hosted a great event. Mental health is a silent crisis and therefore perhaps this topic is not about being quite so noisy but simply holding out a helping hand. From observation I can see that in some cases men do not want to talk and the pressure to talk becomes the main problem. In fact, I know men that simply want to be given solutions, they want to be told what they can do to make themselves feel better, but they do not know who to talk to or how to approach the topic.

Mental health is difficult to talk about, a complete taboo to some people. Let me start by saying that men are not defective woman, so this topic has to be approached in a completely different way to previous discussions on this blog.

There are big clarifications which must be made surrounding the idea that the whole mental health crisis around men is because they do not “open up enough.” For one, men often do open up and are in some cases ignored or they want to talk but do not know what to say, which is more than ok.

There is also a huge problem with men receiving mixed signals from society on “how” they should be. Things have even gone so far that men are told they are struggling because of their own "toxic masculinity.”

Now I am by no means an expert in this area. Sure, there are some toxic elements in how masculinity has been portrayed over the years and up to the modern day, but victim-blaming an entire gender is not going to solve any problems. Alongside this, telling boys as an entire gender to try and handle things the way women handle it, is not the way it should be approached.

A man is 4 times more likely to commit suicide than his female counterpart is, and this silent killer is the main cause of death for men our age. When major mental health charities are labelling "men as emotionally illiterate" and professional bodies echoing this sentiment saying things such as "traditional masculinity is harmful,” men become reluctant to reach out to the professional bodies.

There are alternative smaller charities which I think attention should be brought towards. This includes Andy's Man Club, a charity set up by Luke Ambler after his brother-in-law, Andy Roberts killed himself quite suddenly. Luke believes in a place for men to open up about their problems in a less formal, more casual environment. This charity originally started as a single meeting in Sheffield in 2016, there are now 17 locations with over 400 men attending weekly to talk. It is very much a straight-talking therapy session based around 5 questions;

"How has your week been?", "Name one positive thing that has happened this week,” "What is your goal for next week?” "Anything to get off your chest?" and "Tell us about someone you appreciate in your life and why?”

Simple questions like this are a simple place to start I suppose. I hope in some way this blog helps to introduce a topic which we need help approaching. The Noisy Movement is here, holding out a helping hand to raise awareness around male mental health. As usual, I would love to hear from as many of you as possible with stories or thoughts.

anniemuggoch@icloud.com