If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. For Crisis Support (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Want to share your experience of using our Community?
We're collecting Community Case Studies which could be used on our website, on social media, shared with our volunteers, or shared with third parties who may be interested to hear how online communities help people.
Click here to fill out our anonymous form
We're collecting Community Case Studies which could be used on our website, on social media, shared with our volunteers, or shared with third parties who may be interested to hear how online communities help people.
Click here to fill out our anonymous form
Masculinity
Past User
Posts: 0 Just got here
Comments
Thank you for reaching out and sharing this with us. I can hear how it would be really difficult and frustrating for you to be in an environment where you are told that men should not express their emotions and behave in an 'alpha male' way in order to be considered a man.
From where I'm standing, I think that everyone processes and copes with situations differently, and has their own personal set of interests and hobbies. There isn't anything wrong, or less-masculine, about that, it's just a fact of being human. I'm sorry that you feel as though your identity is being challenged by these ideals of how a man should behave or what they should enjoy.
You've said that you did some meditation to help yourself to destress and relax, which sounds to me like a really healthy way to manage and cope with these difficult feeings. Do you often meditate to help yourself to destress, or is this the first time that you have tried it? How are you feeling about everything at the moment? I'm hearing that you feel down, and wondered if that was still the case, and if you could tell us a little bit more about what being down looks like for you?
In your message, you also mentioned that you feel as though your ability to be masculine is impacted by being on the autistic spectrum, and I wondered if you could tell us a little bit more about that? If you'd like to chat it through then we're all ears.
We're here for you, and you've done really well to share this with us today.
Take care,
Harry