Mental health and therapy are discussed more openly now than they were only a few years ago, but men are still less likely to advocate for themselves once the subject becomes personal. According to BetterHelp’s 2026 State of Stigma Report, men and women report anxiety and depression symptoms at nearly equal rates. However, CDC data gathered from 2021 through 2023 found that only 33.2% of males with depression received counseling or therapy over a 12-month span, compared with 43% of females.
The Struggle is Real
Michael Addis, a psychology professor at Clark University, studies how boys and men learn which emotions they are allowed to show and which problems they are expected to solve alone. Boys learn early to tie emotional control to growing up, so a scraped knee or a real scare tends to draw an order to toughen up instead of an invitation to talk. But over time, those lessons harden into adult rules, and independence becomes the yardstick a man measures his own worth against.
Culture keeps that lesson going into adulthood, and as Addis told the Christian Science Monitor, “we tend to hide the emotional and physical vulnerabilities of men.” He points to the public praise handed to men who come across as stoic and invincible. Addis also traces part of the reluctance to a culture that has treated asking for care, whether for depression or physical pain, as feminine.
Seeking Help
Seeking help is not a sign of weakness, and now more than ever, men are seeing that stepping forward early changes what happens before distress turns into a crisis. Teletherapy removes the concern of being seen in a clinical waiting room, allowing someone to meet with a licensed counselor by video or phone from a safe place. The same technology also makes appointments easier to fit around daily responsibilities.
NAMI, the country’s largest grassroots mental health organization, directs men toward therapist locators and crisis resources, allowing awareness campaigns to lead toward qualified care. However, research with men who had left mental health services found that long waits made returning harder, while participants also called for lower costs.
Original reporting: KTVZ (Central Oregon) — read the source article.
