Pride Month. Caribbean American Heritage Month. Juneteenth. Every June, millions of Americans celebrate these awareness campaigns, making it one of the most diversely celebrated months of the year. However, June is also Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, an attempt at recognition that is often forgotten, joked about, and even treated by the very men it attempts to help as little more than a label on the calendar.
As a high schooler, I have seen and experienced the struggle young men endure in their attempts to openly discuss emotional struggles. Society loves to joke about emotionally detached high school boys. While often holding harmless intent, these stereotypes hold young men to the expectation that they must be expressionless and unbothered by emotional struggle. However, a month dedicated to awareness has little effect when the people it tries to support feel unable to seek help.
While I cannot speak for all high school boys, I can confidently say based on personal experience that many high school boys carry unspoken burdens. As someone who has struggled with my own mental health and spent late nights consoling friends through their own struggles, it is a real problem. Behind all the boldness and big personalities are young men who quietly struggle with loneliness, anxiety and stress — and yet, remain silent.
The statistics tell an even more troubling story. Recent studies show 1 in 5 men struggle with depression, and the suicide rate amongst men is about four times that amongst women. Suicide continues to be a leading cause for death in adolescents and young people. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused men to seek mental help at a significantly higher rate than the prior year.
The issue is not a lack of awareness. Young men know what depression is. Many schools, including mine, actively promote mental health resources. States like Florida even require mental health courses to be part of the student curriculum. The issue is that awareness does not automatically result in conversation. Many young men have now chosen the path of coping through jokes, sarcasm, and the claim that everything is “just fine.” A student’s open joke about being exhausted, overwhelmed or even suicidal is often met with laughs and rarely a serious discussion. Awareness is one thing — getting an open dialogue started is an entirely different ballgame.
Why is it notable to specifically discuss mental health amongst high school boys? Of course mental health is important at any age, but lifelong habits are formed in adolescence. A young man that ignores his emotions at 16 will continue to do so through adulthood. That same man may go on to have kids that will be brought up with the same mindset. This cycle is likely to continue without intervention.
There is an argument to be made that the conversation around men’s mental health is already quite broad. I would certainly agree counseling resources and awareness have increased in recent years. However, I would also claim that such arguments must be based on outcome and not intent. Despite the availability of these resources, less than half of all men with mental struggles seek medical care and men account for 80% of suicide deaths. So to those arguing this perspective, I ask: is the current approach really working?
Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month needs to stop being treated as an opportunity to simply post social media graphics, say “check on your friends,” and move on. Schools, parents and peers must work together to create an environment where young men feel comfortable having open discussions about mental struggles. The mental health crisis for men has grown, and yet troublingly, it feels as though the discussion has not. And if you ask me, we all have a part to play in that.
So, happy Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month. Remember, awareness may end with June, but the responsibility to listen, speak and act does not.
Nathan Agranovsky is a rising International Baccalaureate senior at Seminole High School in Seminole County.
