Tuesday 3rd of September, 2024.
Written by General Psychologist, James Blaze.

Masculinity and Setting the Stage for Suicide

Suicide, Men and Women

In Australia, suicide is the leading cause of death for people between 15-44 years of age, with over three thousand people dying in 2022 and seven million people close to someone who has died by, or attempted suicide.

Suicide has been found to impact men and women differently.

Men are more likely than women to ensure lethal means of suicide and three times more likely to die of suicide than women. This is despite women being more likely to be diagnosed with depression than men. Married men are also more likely to complete suicide using firearms than unmarried men. Also, unmarried men are more likely to use hanging as a means to suicide, holding double the likelihood as a means of suicide in comparison to women.

Masculinity and Setting the Stage for Suicide.

Traditional masculinity involves striving to show qualities such as control, independence, efficiency, success and invulnerability. These can be very helpful in day-to-day life. But, held rigidly and when applied to managing distress, these qualities can promote coping strategies that can increase distress and susceptibility to suicide. These coping strategies may look like unwillingness to express emotions, reluctance to seek support and resorting to substance use to manage the burden of emotions. Holding traditionally masculine ideals so tightly, can harbour pressure that if not successfully addressed, can trigger distress that often goes unspoken. Under traditionally masculine teachings, boys learn from a young age to ignore pain, hide emotions, not portray vulnerability and that doing so gives other men competitive advantages. Women are socialised to embrace support networks, communication and gain empowerment from vulnerability with social connections, however for men this can be the opposite. Talking about mental health risks losing status, privilege and power (desirable masculine ideals). This is why we may see topics of discussion amongst men delegated to those reflecting masculine ideals like politics, business and sports. Over time, this increases men’s threshold to bear painful emotions, leaving them bottled up if situations are not able to be overcome.

Disconnection from Masculinity, Triggers to Suicide.

Triggers to thoughts around suicide can reflect disconnection from traditionally masculine qualities. These triggers may be a separation from a partner (often a man’s sole outlet to support seeking) or isolation from children (provisioning and protection responsibilities). This disconnection from masculine ideals can lead to a loss of identity and purpose, a sense of failure, loss of control, helplessness, depression, risky behaviours and ultimately suicide. When managing stress, men resort to denial, distraction and problem behaviours (substance use and aggression) more often than women, who have more flexible coping strategies to dealing with stress. This is because distress and associated depression are inconsistent with prized masculine ideals, so are often rejected or ignored by men, further increasing suicide risk. As a result, suicide can become an outcome that gives men back power in resolving a challenging issue, resulting in the unfortunate loss of their life and aftermath to their loved ones.

Alternatives to Suicide as an Option

Traditional masculine ideals may be a hugely powerful constellation of qualities that provide purpose and meaning to the lives of men. Although these qualities may appear to conflict with help seeking behaviours, men might benefit from mobilising these qualities in a way for the betterment of their mental health.

For example, instead of seeing help seeking and open disclosure as a sign of weakness, men may reframe help seeking and vulnerability (to a trusted person/people) as working out emotional fitness and building mental strength. Reaching out to trusted others might be seen as exercising control, using masculinity as a strength to manage distress.

Therapy can supplement the management of stress in a variety of ways. For those men who are concerned about their physical wellbeing, therapy can provide a training ground for open disclosure to loved ones. Your psychologist may help you create a plan to keep you out of harm’s way in times of crisis. Therapy can normalize distress, increase activity, improve communication skills, consolidate routine, increase attending to health and social connectedness, improve mood and decrease suicide vulnerability. Recognizing and learning the purpose of emotions can also help men cope in times where they would have used unhelpful traditionally masculine coping strategies.

It is clear that suicide impacts men differently, in relation to the values and qualities they may hold closely.

Although men who subscribe to traditional masculinity may be at higher risk of suicide, this is not a fate we must accept being men.

References 

Bennett, S. et al. (2023) ‘Male suicide risk and recovery factors: A systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis of two decades of research.’, Psychological Bulletin, 149(7–8), pp. 371–417. doi:10.1037/bul0000397.

Callanan, V.J. and Davis, M.S. (2011) ‘Gender differences in suicide methods’, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47(6), pp. 857–869. doi:10.1007/s00127-011-0393-5.

Chandler, A. (2021) ‘Masculinities and suicide: Unsettling “talk” as a response to suicide in men’, Critical Public Health, 32(4), pp. 499–508. doi:10.1080/09581596.2021.1908959.

Black Dog Institute Better Mental Health (2023). Facts about suicide in Australia. Black Dog Institute | Better Mental Health. https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/resources-support/suicide/facts-about-suicide-in-australia/ (Accessed: 10 July 2024).

Suicide Prevention Australia. (2023). Stats and Facts. https://www.suicidepreventionaust.org/news/statsandfacts#1690952813832-1e5deecd-69f3 (Accessed: 10 July 2024).

Moller-Leimkuhler, A.M. (2003) ‘The gender gap in suicide and premature death or: Why are men so vulnerable?’, European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 253(1), pp. 1–8. doi:10.1007/s00406-003-0397-6.

Oliffe, J.L. et al. (2012) ‘“You feel like you can’t live anymore”: Suicide from the perspectives of Canadian men who experience depression’, Social Science & Medicine, 74(4), pp. 506–514. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.03.057. Moller-Leimkuhler, A.M. (2003) ‘The gender gap in suicide and premature death or: Why are men so vulnerable?’, European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 253(1), pp. 1–8. doi:10.1007/s00406-003-0397-6.

Player, M.J. et al. (2015) ‘What interrupts suicide attempts in men: A qualitative study’, PLOS ONE, 10(6), pp. 1–13. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0128180.

Richardson, C., Robb, K.A. and O’Connor, R.C. (2021) ‘A systematic review of suicidal behaviour in men: A narrative synthesis of risk factors’, Social Science & Medicine, 276, p. 1-13. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113831.