Harder than learning something new, is unlearning something that has already been established in one’s mind, more-so if it has been so since one’s earliest recollection.
We are in a dispensation where men are being encouraged to talk more about their emotional challenges but how feasible is this, when from the earliest social interactions, we are told things like, “Big boys don’t cry”. “Walk it off”. “Man up “. As such, there is a generation which, even with all these calls to break the silence, will never because it will require unlearning.
Unlearning that talking about it isn’t weakness. It actually takes courage. Yet, it’s not only men who need to unlearn. Society as a whole needs to. It is not only men who discouraged other men from talking. There are still women who see a man who is willing to open up emotionally, as being weak.
So breaking the silence requires; re-education of society.
Creation of a safe space for men to talk without being ostracized or belittled for it.
Men need to take the lead in the area of men’s mental health because they need to hear it from other men that it is ok to talk about “stuff”
