Men's Mental Health Stigma: A Male Issue or a Social Issue?

An exploration of rejection and discrimination related to men's mental health.

Men’s mental health stigma remains overlooked and ignored, and still lurks silently in the shadows of society. Importantly, stigma is typically divided into two dimensions: internal stigma and external stigma. Internal stigma refers to private feelings of shame and worthlessness held by stigmatized individuals, often leading to social withdrawal and low self-esteem. External stigma refers to negative attitudes and prejudicial stereotypes held by people at large, often leading to rejection and subsequent discrimination.

Importantly, the discourse surrounding men’s mental health tends to focus on the internal stigma of affected men, who are often depicted as self-destructively stubborn and silent in the face of mental illness. This narrow focus can sometimes descend into a victim-blaming discourse. As such, it is important to broaden the focus to consider external stigma by examining negative attitudes and prejudicial stereotypes elsewhere in society.

This external stigma may be a key factor deterring men from discussing their mental health issues and seeking help from services, and is found in surprising places.

Men’s Mental Health Stigma in Health Services

The academic literature indicates that men are significantly less likely to use mental health services than women in the face of a mental illness. The reasons for such under-utilization are varied, but external stigma is a huge and under-acknowledged factor. Indeed, some research indicates that health care providers themselves can hold stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness.

For example, one survey found that 44 percent of service users report major discrimination in their interactions with the mental health care system. In a study of low-income men living in rural New England, participants reported numerous negative encounters with clinicians, with one stating that "Whenever I would go in there [a local hospital], they treated me like a drunk, and I don’t drink!"

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