If you’re not a regular reader of Newsweek (either online or their print publication), you may have missed their in-depth article about men and depression. While more women than men typically suffer from depression, this may be a result of men being less likely to report or admit their depressive feelings to others. Men often suffer with their depression internally, taking on a traditional role prescribed to men throughout the ages:

[M]en tend not to take care of themselves and are reluctant to own up to mental illness. Although depression is emotionally crippling and has numerous medical implications—some of them deadly—many men fail to recognize the symptoms. Instead of talking about their feelings, men may mask them with alcohol, drug abuse, gambling, anger or by becoming workaholics. And even when they do realize they have a problem, men often view asking for help as an admission of weakness, a betrayal of their male identities.

If you’re a guy who’s grappling with some depressive feelings or love a man who might be, the article is worth the read (all 6 pages of it online). They also link to a Pfizer-created depression test, but if you’re looking for a non-pharma depression quiz, I suggest ours (naturally, but also because ours allow you to track your depressive mood over time too).

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 7 Mar 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.