Men and mental health
- Chris Blackmore
- Apr 17
- 5 min read
Many men do seek help for their mental health, although many still wait longer than they need to. In England, common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are more common in women than in men, but they remain very common among men. The latest Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, published in November 2025, found that 15.4% of men in England had a common mental health condition, compared with 24.2% of women.
At the same time, other indicators point to serious unmet need. In NHS Talking Therapies data for England in 2024–25, around two-thirds of referrals received were for women (66.5%), compared with one-third for men (33.5%). A similar pattern was seen among people who went on to access services, where 67.6% were women and 32.4% were men.
In our adult therapy service, among adults who completed both a pre and post treatment CORE-OM, a standard questionnaire used in psychological therapy to measure distress before and after therapy, women made up around 61% of cases and men 39%. Whilst this is not the same as national NHS Talking Therapies data, and it is only one part of the picture, it does shows a similar broad pattern: women make up the larger share of those in therapy.
This is not because men are unaffected by distress or because the difficulties are mild. Suicide data in England and Wales continues to show a much higher rate among men than women. The latest Office for National Statistics annual bulletin reports that in 2024 the male suicide rate in England and Wales was 17.6 deaths per 100,000, compared with 5.7 per 100,000 for females.
So why do many men still delay or even avoid getting support?
The reasons are rarely simple, and they are not unique to men. Many of the same barriers can affect men or women. But for many men, they are often shaped by long-standing expectations about strength, stoicism, and coping alone. These can make it harder to recognise distress, harder to talk about it, and harder to seek support early.
Distress does not always look the way people expect
Tradition has it that men typically ‘do’ rather than ‘say’. Such a cultural stereotype is powerful, enduring and pervasive. A man may keep working, keep showing up, and appear to function, while struggling badly underneath. Distress may show itself less in what he says and more in changes in mood, behaviour, or coping: becoming irritable, withdrawn, flat, exhausted, or emotionally numb. Over time, poor sleep, constant tension, overthinking, anger, or increased reliance on alcohol and other coping habits can start to feel normal rather than recognised as signs that something is wrong.
‘Man up’
Many boys and men absorb the message that coping alone is preferable, that emotional control means silence, or that asking for help is somehow a failure. The Mental Health Foundation notes that social expectations and traditional gender roles play a part in why men are often less likely to discuss mental health problems or seek help.
Fear and misunderstanding
There can also be a practical misunderstanding about what support involves. Some men assume that therapy means being pushed to talk in a way that feels unnatural, or that they will be judged, analysed, or told what is wrong with them. In reality, good psychological support is usually more straightforward than that. It aims to help someone understand what is happening, reduce distress, and find more workable ways of coping and responding.
Self-reliance
For some men, the delay is about not wanting to burden other people. They may feel they should keep it to themselves, get on with it, and not make their struggles someone else’s problem. For others, it is about embarrassment, uncertainty, previous bad experiences, or the sense that their problems are not serious enough to warrant support. If they are still managing to work, function, and appear outwardly fine, it can be easy to dismiss what they are carrying and tell themselves it can wait.
None of this suggests that therapy is somehow less relevant or less effective for men. Men may be less likely to reach therapy, but once they do, the picture looks very different.
In our adult therapy service, men and women showed very similar patterns of change once therapy had begun. Their average CORE-OM scores were closely matched at the start of treatment and closely matched again by the end. In both groups, scores moved from the moderate distress range into the low-level range. In CORE-OM terms, that suggests meaningful improvement, not just a small change in score, but change large enough to be unlikely to reflect ordinary fluctuation alone, and enough in many cases to indicate movement out of the clinical range. While this is a snapshot from one service and one outcome measure, it suggests that once men do engage with therapy, they benefit to a similar extent as women.
If any of this feels familiar, it may be worth taking it seriously. Mental health support is not only for crisis, and you do not have to wait until things are falling apart before asking for help. If you have been carrying more than you should for longer than you should, that may already be reason enough to speak to someone. That could mean talking to your GP or contacting a psychologist or therapist directly. It could start even smaller, perhaps talking to someone you trust that things have not been right for you.
We are strong advocates for the beneficial changes clinical, evidence-based talking therapies can have for a person in mental health distress. Seeking support is a recognition that coping alone is no longer the only option.
We hope this encourages you to reflect on your own needs and on the reasons you may have for holding back from seeking support.
What next?
We have a number of clinicians with considerable experience in a wide variety of mental health issues who offer a number of different talking therapies. Please feel free to contact us as we respond to all enquiries, and you are of course under no obligation to proceed any further after contacting us. Instead of clinical based therapy, there are other organisations such as the charity Andy’s Man Club which you may wish to consider.
References
Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/2024
Office for National Statistics: Suicides in England and Wales 1981 to 2024
NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression, Annual Report 2024–25
Mental Health Foundation: Men and mental health
Internal service data
Adult therapy outcome data from Socrates Psychological Services, 01/01/2021 – 31/12/2025, based on completed pre and post treatment CORE-OM measures.
