June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month
By: Tori Morrison, Special to Loveland Beacon
LOVELAND, OH (June 8, 2026) – About a year and a half ago, a young man came to me and said that he was having bad thoughts. This was someone who seemed on the surface like everything was fine. He had really good friends and a great family life. I would never have expected to hear the words coming out of his mouth. I encouraged him to talk to his family. I offered to go with him or even have the conversation first. He chose for me to tell his family for him. It was a hard conversation but I’m so thankful that we had it.
June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month. While mental health affects everyone, there are important reasons to focus specifically on men.
The simplest reason is that suicide rates for men are 4x higher than for women! Men make up nearly 80% of all suicides.
Several factors contribute to this statistic:
- Men are more likely to use highly lethal methods leading to higher mortality rates in their attempts.
- Society tells men that they need to “suck it up” or “be a man.”. This creates a significant barrier to them seeking mental health help.
- If a man does seek help, they are more likely to be misdiagnosed. Their depression may exhibit as anger or risk-taking instead of sadness.
- Alcohol and drugs are often used to self- medicate and, unfortunately, men have higher rates of substance abuse.
- Men are less likely to communicate with other men. They become isolated and feel like they are the only ones who feel this way.
Statistics tell us what is happening, but they don’t tell us the stories behind the numbers. For me, that story is Ben. The truth is that we all feel lonely at times. We all feel less than at times.
How do we get men talking? In my opinion, we get them talking by first starting the conversation. I wish I had talked to Ben about mental health. In reality, I didn’t know that I needed to.
Ask your son how he’s really doing. Check in with a friend. Tell the men in your life that it’s okay to struggle and okay to ask for help.
Let them know it’s okay to talk about feelings. Our adult men need to teach our kids. I can imagine it will be uncomfortable for many men, but we do uncomfortable things every day.
I think things are moving in the right direction. We are talking about mental health more openly than we did when I was young. My hope is that we keep those conversations going, especially with our boys and young men. Every conversation has the potential to remind someone that they are not alone and that help is available.
More at: https://benmorrisonfund.org/
