Very sad situation. One factor no one wants to talk about is women influence. They have us over a barrel. Men naturally love Mum and are passed onto wife by Mum. We just don't get a say in the process.

' Compounding this is a frequent lack of awareness among men of available support services, or a sense that these services do not adequately cater for their needs and would not help in their situation '

Naturally, it's the supposed lack of awareness that government likes to tackle. It totally discounts that, as in my experience, the fact, not 'sense', that 'these services do not adequately cater for their needs and would not help in their situation'

I love gems like this,

'A suicide attempt is a strong predictor for suicidal behaviour'

No sh1t sherlock.

'Seems our greatest challenge is to find "meaning" in our lives and a sense of ourselves being "needed" in the scheme of things.'

I dunno poirot, what if the meaning of life is really to not need a meaning for your life.

People seem to respond to 'you're worth it', but it's the very people who don't think they are.

I've been trying to think of a more effective campaign than the corny 'all men cant talk about their feelings' bullshite.

I think the essential ingredient is the persuasion to the depressed person that they can get through to the other side, and that their thinking is reinforcing a hopeless outlook. If the desire is to attract males of a mindset that they don't need help, there is all sorts of angles that co-exist with that outlook than promoting the feminist doctrine of the faulty male.

There is ample scope for the psychologists to attempt to break a man down and re-educate his gender perception and indoctrinate him into the feminist ideology once you have him in the room, but in an advertising campaign why mess with gender identity.

Poirot

Finding meaning might be more difficult than perhaps having a purpose or consuming interests. Einstein is purported to have written: 'Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living'

I think there is some merit in that but not at a superficial level. Perhaps Einstein meant it not only in terms of community participation, or contribution (in his case to science) but also as regards interaction or service to family and friends.

The idea of helping others such as in volunteerism. Although in writing I am reminded of my father who has a thing about 'volunteers'. Mostly he doesn't like them, seeing them as more about feeling good about themselves as opposed to an altruistic act of helping. I know what he means but am less judgemental. Even if the act of volunteering itself may be motivated by those selfish 'feel-good' feelings, is this a bad thing. There are are positive spin-off effects to having, for example, people helping out at a soup kitchen or manning a helpline. Are the motivations more important than the outcome?

Again I make a point of distinguishing between clinical depression and other sorts of melancholy/depression that might be short-term.

Lexi
Thanks for the link.

The article Lexi referenced is interesting in what it acknowledges and what it appears to ignore. They have a number of points there that could tend to support my views on the role the family law and child support systems play in the rates of male suicide. The question appears to be be ignored though. Are the authors unware of widespread male dissatisfation with the family law system?

- The age brackets where the incidence of suicide is highest appears to have a substantial correlation with the ages where children are likely to be in the mix.
- The link to relationship breakdown is acknowledged but no apparent questioning of the role of different outcomes for men in that process.
- The role of financial factors is mentioned but again no questioning of the factors that might lead to a financial crisis.

I think that the family law system is part of the mix, not the whole story but I am very bothered by how consistently its ignored by thoe seemigly seeking answers to issues where its role should be seriously considered.

R0bert

Thanks Houellie and Pelly,

By "meaning" - I'm not trying to plumb sophisticated depths.

I'm referring to the sense of being wherein one finds his or her life experience to be part of a continuum - as Illich wrote, where meanings are consistent, mutually explanatory and reinforcing.

I have no idea why we think we can fracture our societies and calve them up into neat little departments and then wonder why people are being diagnosed with "clinical" depression left, right and centre.

Most people are too tightly lashed to the system to even consider stepping back, dumping the load and opting to simplify their lives. They're carried along by a strong current - and because everyone else is sailing along with them, they don't think it's an option to pull into the riverbank and watch the world glide past.