Yoga For Men’s Mental Health
The prevalence of depression in society varies country by country, however, most people are likely to know someone that has been affected by its unforgiving ways. It can wear many faces and is known to affect those who seem abundantly happy on the outside.
Depression is commonplace worldwide, different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to everyday challenges, it can debilitate an individual to the extent where they are no longer able to function and at worse lead some to take their own lives.
Suicide remains the leading cause of death for Australians between 15 and 44 years of age. From data available from the World Health Organization (WHO), there were an estimated 793,000 suicide deaths worldwide, which is equivalent to one every 40 seconds, and most of whom are men.
Yoga and Men’s Mental Health
“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”
B. K. S. Iyengar
They are undoubtedly both very complex, intricate, and often individualistic topics; however with these statistics, it is important to look for tools and resources to help our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, friends, and people we haven’t met yet. Myself and a whole host of researchers believe the ancient practice and art of yoga can achieve this and have a positive impact on men’s mental health.
With yoga we have the power to move out of the fight or flight response most of us are living in the restraints of, into the rest-and-digest mode. Yoga has the power to literally rewire the chemistry in our brains, and help develop strength of the body and mind, enabling us to live wholly happier and healthier lives.
What is Depression?
Our mental health is such an important part of our overall well being and is about balance in our thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and relationships with others.
While we all feel sad, moody or low from time to time, some people experience these feelings intensely, for long periods of time (weeks, months or even years) and sometimes without any apparent reason. Depression affects around 264 million people from all over the globe, it is far more severe than just being in a bad mood – it’s a serious condition that affects us physically and mentally.
Signs of Mental Health Issues
The persistent feeling of sadness or loss of interest that characterises major depression can lead to a range of behavioural and physical symptoms. These may include changes in appetite, feelings of guilt, different energy levels, concentration, sexual desire, daily behaviour or self-esteem.
Almost half of Australians will have a mental health condition in their lifetime, with 3 million adults having anxiety and/or depression in any year and this, sadly, like all other mental disorders is on the rise. Although there are known, effective treatments, between 76% and 85% of people in low- and middle-income countries receive no help.
Barriers to effective care include a lack of resources, lack of trained health-care providers, and social stigma associated with mental disorders. With a lack of help or knowledge of prevention, this depression manifests deeper and can result in suicide.
Is Depression Really a Big Problem for Men?
Suicide is a far bigger problem for men rather than women. 1 in 8 men will experience depression. 1 in 5 men will experience anxiety, and globally men are twice as likely to commit suicide than women.
However in many countries this is even higher, for example in Australia men are three times more likely to die by taking their own life than their female counterparts. Many studies show that depression often goes undiagnosed in men, thus building a correlation as to why more women are known to have depression, yet more suicides occur amongst males.
“1 in 8 men will experience depression. 1 in 5 men will experience anxiety, and globally men are twice as likely to commit suicide than women.”
Signs of Depression
The signs of clinical depression of men and women are alike. The most common symptoms of depression in men are: apathy, changes in appetite, fatigue, loss of interest in usually pleasurable activities, sexual problems, including reduced sex drive, sleep disturbances, and suicidal thoughts.
However the way females and males express these symptoms are diverse. For example, some men with depression hide their emotions and appear to be aggressive, irritable, or angry while females seem unhappy or express unhappiness.
Men with depression may feel very tired and lose interest in work, family, or hobbies and have greater problems sleeping than women. Women are more likely to put on weight when depressed; whereas men are more likely to lose it.
Physical Effects of Mental Health Issues
Occasionally mental health issues manifest into physical problems. Chest tightness, persistent headaches, digestive upset, and a pounding heart can all be symptoms of a mental health issue. Many men are more likely to see their doctor about these physical symptoms than emotional ones, thus leading to trouble in a professional diagnosis or even being acknowledged by partners, friends, and family.
So a greater percentage of men harmfully self medicate turning to drugs or alcohol to try to cope with their emotional symptoms. While women with depression are more likely to attempt suicide, men are more likely to die because they tend to use more lethal methods.
What’s Causing Mental Illness in Men?
It’s not easy to say exactly what causes depression, anxiety, and other mental illness – it’s different for everyone. It may be caused by genetics, biochemical factors, specific events, or a series of events built up over time.
People who have gone through hard life occurrences for example long term illness, unemployment, bereavement, psychological trauma are more likely to become stressed, develop depression and mental illness.
This can, in turn, worsen the affected person’s life situation and depression itself. When depression worsens, positive thoughts disappear, blue skies are infiltrated by a sky of grey, and many people, especially men take their lives. The chart below shows how drastically different the gender gap is in statistics worldwide.
Masculinity and Mental Health
But the question is why? Academics have been trying to find reasons for why gender is such a significant indicator, as feelings of stress, loss, financial hardship, isolation, and disconnection are prevalent throughout both sexes.
A common explanation within research relies on the social constructions of hegemonic masculinity and femininity. According to the literature on gender and suicide, male suicide rates are explained in terms of traditional gender roles. Male gender roles tend to emphasize greater levels of strength, independence, risk-taking behavior, economic status, and individualism. But many believe these ideologies of what a man should be, have become toxic, hence the term ’toxic masculinity’.
A cultural concept of manliness that glorifies stoicism, strength, virility, and dominance, are socially maladaptive and harmful to mental health. They persuade men to suppress emotions, mask distress, uphold an image of hardness, and encourage violence as an indicator of power. This has been seen to increase depression in males as some feel they cannot live up to the perceived ‘societal standard’.
Men are convinced not to talk about their thoughts, feelings, and emotions, whilst at the same time the pressure is put on them to be “tough all the time”; “man up” that anything other than that makes them “feminine” or weak. This toxic masculinity and reinforcement of gender roles may be one of the leading causes of suicide and has been a proven barrier for men to seek support and advice for their suicidal feelings.
Although in recent times there has been an increase in awareness of how dangerous and unhelpful these taught ideologies are. Within a lot of Western countries, society is arguably becoming more liberal and accepting of men who do not conform to these gender roles. More positively, there has been a rise of men who are in the limelight, that have started speaking about their depression, including high ranking athletes, musicians, actors, and politicians. This is becoming part of an effort to remove the stigma away from mental illness, getting men to seek help and find coping methods- and this is where I believe yoga can play such a key part.
How Can Yoga Improve Men’s Mental Health?
There are a variety of ways to help depression including psychotherapy, talk therapy, community approaches, meditation, exercise, and medicinal SSRIs (although I am the last to advocate for any sort of pharmaceuticals unless in the most extreme circumstances).
I have seen how the power of yoga works on improving mental health, across all ages, genders, social classes, races, and religions. It holds no judgment of who you are, your fitness or flexibility level, your power, status, or archaic gender roles. In fact yoga cares nothing about the outside, but turning inwards, connecting your mind, body, and soul.
The perfect mix of exercise, meditation, focus, and emotional release that is found within the practice of yoga has helped millions of people for thousands of years.
Whilst yoga has been an eastern spiritual and medical practice for 5000 years it has only recently been used by the west to promote physical and mental well-being used as complementary and alternative medicine in Western societies for its psychophysiological benefits.
The physical benefits of increased flexibility, muscle strength and tone, better respiration, energy and vitality, improved cardio, weight management, and protection from injuries are very well known and talked about. However the mental aspects don’t quite receive so much attention. Yoga also increases body awareness, reduces stress, muscle tension, strain, and inflammation, sharpens attention and concentration, and calms and centers the nervous system.
Yoga teaches us how to rest and relax, calm our busy minds, control our breathing and reactions to the outside world, ultimately resulting in a higher quality of life. It can be broken down into 8 basic principles that are all seen to benefit our mental health:
Yama (moral code)
Niyama (self-discipline)
Asanas (postures or poses)
Pranayama (control of the breath)
Pratyahara (detachment from senses)
Dharana (concentration)
Dhyana (meditation or positive, mindful focus on the present)
Savasana (state of rest)
Note how only Asanas and Savasana are related to the physical side where the rest comes from us within, mentally, and emotionally.
Learn more: Get started with yoga with our Beginner’s Guide to Yoga For Men.
Physical Benefits of Yoga for Men’s Mental Health
Though from a purely physical point of view, asanas relax the body and increase the supply of blood and nutrients to the muscles. The longer we hold a posture for, the more effect it has.
This releases connective tissue, enhancing the way we move, function, and feel, all of which support our mental health. While most forms of physical activity release endorphins that make us feel better, recent research shows that yoga has an advantage over different types of exercise when it comes to emotional stability.
Benefits of Yoga for Men’s Mental Health
Yoga is all about linking breath with movement and becoming fully present in mind and body. The practice itself is centered on concentration – focus on the breath, the alignment, and the asana. By being deeply focused and engaged, it takes the external problems and factors that cause a lot of depression away, with no other choice than to be present in that moment.
It is also a great release of emotions, as previously mentioned negative feelings and traumas often manifest themselves into physical pain and tension. When we practice we begin to untwine muscular tension and by doing so also releasing the associated emotions bound in our muscles. Yoga also makes our physical, mental, and emotional bodies stronger, therefore, increases our ability to process challenging emotions and past traumas.
Practicing yoga also releases a chemical called Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the thalamus. This chemical plays a key role in suppressing the neural activity that leads to anxiety and later to depression. Some SSRIs (antidepressants) and alcohol activate the brain’s GABA receptors (but when withdrawn it can turn into insomnia and anxiety), therefore yoga is proven to make you feel like you’ve just had a couple of drinks or just as you would after taking antidepressants but without the horrible side effects! You can literally ‘reset’ your brain to a calmer more collected state of mind that you are able to go back to at any time of day.
Stress Reduction
Pranayama is another one of yoga’s specialties. Those struggling with mental health often breath through their chest, rapidly, with no focus. However when you start breathing deeply, from your lower lungs and stomach instead, you move from the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode) so automatically feel calmer and happier.
In yoga classes, students are often encouraged to use the Ujjayi breath (don’t worry about this too much if you’re new to yoga!). Ujjayi breathing is done through a closed mouth, by contracting the throat to make a sort of ocean sound, and with the lower lungs. It has a great impact on parasympathetic nerve receptors and is a big contributor as to why we feel blissed out at the end of a class.
Breathing is key, ever wondered why people say smoking a cigarette calms them down? Well the truth is there are no magic stress-reducing chemicals in a cigarette, it is in fact the few minutes of breathing that has the calming effect people are craving, and one that can be reached in a vastly healthier way via yoga.
Furthermore, the more you practice, the more you relax and reduce and repress the stress hormone cortisol. This optimizes the body’s responses to stressful stimuli and restores autonomic regulatory reflex mechanisms linked to stress.
Yogic practices inhibit the areas responsible for emotions such as fear, aggressiveness, and rage, that are more commonly seen within males, especially those with depressive symptoms. While the brain is repressing these feelings, it is stimulating the rewarding pleasure centers in the median forebrain and other areas leading to a state of pleasure. When we practice yoga regularly it is proven to make us happier, less stressed, anxious, and depressed.
Wrap Up
Depression, anxiety are grave mental health concerns for men in most countries worldwide. Similarly to the rest of the population there a variety of reasons behind this, whether it is stress, ill health, financial or family hardship, isolation, or otherwise, the coinciding suicide statistics for men are staggeringly higher.
Far fewer men are seeking help for these feelings and this may be due to the social constructions of hegemonic masculinity and femininity that become toxic when reinforced so regularly and heavily.
Yoga makes a perfect, natural, accessible for all, and relatively easy to engage in treatment and is one of the only that connects both your body and your mind. By deepening our breathing, becoming present, and more focused, releasing physical and emotional tension in the connective tissue of our muscles, increasing endorphins whilst at the same time suppressing stress hormones.
It is easy to see how yoga can create peace of mind, a vital sense of well-being, feelings of calm, improved self-worth and confidence, better efficiency, increased attentiveness, lowered irritability, and a more optimistic outlook on life. I have worked with male clients all over the world that have advocated highly for yoga helping with their own mental health and I could not encourage you more to do so.