Female mental health trigger warning

One-in-a-million

Trigger warning 

Suicide 

So I was wondering male suicide had become a hot topic in the last few years, people are finally talking about it and encouraging men to speak out... but why isn’t female suicide talked about too? I know alot more men than women commit suicide but it happens to females too and yet I haven’t heard the media or campaigns talk about female suicide or more to the point awareness it could happen to anyone,men,women, teens and even children.

Please no arguing I’m just curious 

Former Member

I think the biggest thing is the stereotype that men should be the strong ones. It's a lot of pressure and I think by running the male campaigns that are being run it helps to de-escalate these stereotypes and encourage men to reach out for help. 

That's not to say women don't deserve or shouldn't get help, they absolutely should. Women are generally better at reaching out for support as they are less likely to feel judged. 

As you say, it's not a topic for argument. Everyone deserves support, it's just some groups you need to go a little further to help them. 

A great wee saying that I found is that to be equal you have to provide different support. I'm gonna explain that a little further. 

Imagine everyone has to get to the top of the building. We have to treat everyone exactly the same, so everyone has to go up the stairs. Everyone starts at exactly the same time. Now imagine people that are unable to do stairs for whatever reason - wheelchair users, certain amputees, people with underlying health conditions etc (the list goes on and on). 

Being equal is unfair because people have different needs. To treat everyone fairly you have to treat people (and groups) differently. 

Hope this all makes sense!

Past User

I think the guys above have explained it perfectly. Here's a smashing wee pic to visualize what @Anch0r33 is saying re. providing different support for things to be fair. It's equality  I think guys just need that little bit of extra reminding that it doesn't make them less of a man to need support.

Former Member

@Liam yes this pic is fantastic! I didn't even think to get a picture to help visualise it, so I'm glad you've done so. Makes it so much easier to picture doesn't it? 

One-in-a-million

Thanks guys you have all made some awesome points. 

@Aidan I never thought about it like that, I have to admit the domestic violence against females does bug me too because just like the suicide point it can happen to men. I have known a man who was suffering from abuse at the hands of his partner, but due to lack of awareness didn’t know who to turn to, we did eventually get him out of the situation but I think he felt like he couldn’t come forward because we focus on females being abused. Although a few years ago I remember coronation street doing a domestic abuse against men storyline which I thought was fantastic.

I think that while we are promoting things like Male suicide awareness and domestic abuse again women we should at the same time make people aware that it can happen to anyone, for example When The Mix does campaigns they never tag a gender in particular, you would never tell a woman “your less likely to commit suicide so we are going to aim at males” or say to a man “you are less likely to be abused so we will aim at females.” 

I think it’s good to have campaigns such as “get Britain talking” which aims at everyone

@Anch0r33
A great point about the stereotype, I do hate stereotypes a lot, I think it’s more the fact that from what I have watched, male suicide is the only suicide spoken about but I definitely see where you are coming from with providing different levels of support like @Liam has provided.


thank you guys for keeping this discussion a discussion and not fighting