"There does seem to be some clinical wisdom, and a great deal of anecdotal evidence from people that work in mental health ⁠— and from people that study men's lives ⁠— that when men struggle with fear, and depression, as well, it can tend to come out more as anger and aggression." Michael Addis

On how anxiety is different for men Michael Addis: “There does seem to be some clinical wisdom, and a great deal of anecdotal evidence from people that work in mental health — and from people that study men's lives — that when men struggle with fear, and depression, as well, it can tend to come out more as anger and aggression. That said, we don't, as yet, have definitive scientific evidence of that. But, I can tell you, for example, anecdotally, one of the things that got me into this area of research was that I was working on an anxiety treatment center, on a research study, and I ended up interviewing a man who was having daily panic attacks. And a panic attack is an overwhelming sense of anxiety and fear that comes on very quickly. You can be dizzy, nauseous, have a sense of unreality. Here's the kicker: he was actually a construction worker working up on those scaffolds, 30 stories up in the air. And having daily panic attacks. And it's been going on for 10 years. And he had not sought treatment, because he felt that this was a weakness on his part. That if he had more character — or, I might say, if he had more masculinity, as socially defined — he would have been, he thought, in his own mind, able to deal with that, and conquer it.” Stefan Hofmann: “It's very much of a socialization issue. And men in our culture are more encouraged to use, let's say, strategies such as substance use, alcohol, to suppress their emotions. Or, to act out emotions in an aggressive way that's more socially acceptable, as compared to women. They are more encouraged to talk to their friend, and to bottle it up, and to perhaps kind of withdraw and become passive. So, this is very much in line with, ‘How do we regulate our emotions in a culturally adaptive way?’ ” On the link between anxiety and suicide in men Michael Addis: “One thing we've known for several decades is that men take their lives at about four times the rate that women do. And suicide is often set in motion by — regardless of the mental disorder that might be, or might not be, surrounding it – it’s set in motion by narrowing of vision, a hopelessness, the sense that things are not going to get better. And [also] the idea that the air that men breathe, on a large scale — which creates these mandates for handling problems on your own, being a success, always keeping your weaknesses to yourself, and so on. It’s not hard to see how that would heighten that sense of hopelessness, if you are, in fact, facing something like chronic anxiety. So, there's certainly a link there.”

"Showing them that they're not by themselves, and that there are multiple different options and avenues in which they can proceed in treatment, or even talk about anxiety, is huge now." Mark Farley