INTERVIEW: David Pilbäck from Men’s Movement: Educating men about mental health
12.5% of men in the UK suffer from different types of anxiety or depression, according to Men’s Health Forum. Men are three times more likely to develop alcohol addiction, says the Health and Social Care Information Centre, and three out of four suicides in the UK are committed by men, according to Men’s Health Forum.
David Pilbäck from Sweden is on a mission to change these disturbing facts. He is the founder of the Men’s Movement with the aim to build a worldwide community for and about men’s mental health. Men’s Movement is based in Stockholm, Sweden and provides a variety of information, tools, and products on mental health to men across the world, - also in the UK. There are a variety of reasons why men suffer from mental health issues, but David points to one specific problem. “Men don’t talk. Not only in the UK but all around the world.” “For example, I know professionals, who have worked with former emergency services personnel in the UK. Some of these men took care of the bodies of the victims killed in IRA bombings. Afterwards, these guys would just go to the pub, have a pint and talk about sport,” he says. This does not only apply to emergency service personnel but all industries according to David. “Men don’t digest their experiences. Some men contain these experiences until they collapse,” he says. 322 million people suffered from depression worldwide in 2015, according to a report from the World Health Organization. 264 dealt with anxiety disorders the report also says. According to David, the problem is the relationship between us and our society that does not fir each other. “In my point of view, the society we have built is not compatible with our nerve system,” he says. “Our culture does not permit us to down-regulate our nerve system. By talking, hugging each other, crying and showing emotions. Our natural outlets are not allowed in our society. So, with increasing pressure from our work life, this is not sustainable.” This goes for both women and men, David argues. On a global scale, women are more likely to suffer from both depression and anxiety disorders. This also accounts for the UK, where one in five women suffered from a common mental disorder in 2014 (fx stress, anxiety or depression), compared with one in eight men, according to the Office for National Statistics. Men and women suffer from different issues, according to David. “You cannot compare women and men against each other or genres of people against each other. It’s just different,” he says. However, the founder of Men’s Movement does points to problems in the relationships between men and women. The increasing number of women in the workforce have put women under pressure, he says. “Today, so many women have burnouts. It’s a stress reaction from the head and the nervous system, because of stress, untreated trauma, dissociation, and overdrive,” he says. “In Sweden, for example, Women work almost as much as men, but when they come home, they have 3-4 hours of labor at home as well. And women are still much more responsible for the home, and the social life of the larger family.” “Men have not picked up a shared responsibility for the homes, relationships, food and the children. They work and then they are free to a larger extent. Of course, this is very different over the world depending on what country and culture we look at.” “The women’s liberation has put much pressure on women. During the same time, men have not stepped up and taken the full responsibility for the shared family life to the same degree.” David underlines that neither women's mental health or men’s mental health issues are more important than the other. “It’s just different,” he says. Different people of different genders, societies, and cultures struggle with various mental health issues. For now, David focuses on men’s mental health, and he has high hopes for the community. He hopes that men with mental health issues will become much more mainstream and even more stars stepping forward and speak about their bad mental health,” he says. “In the future, the men with mental health issues will be as accepted as a broken bone,” David argues. “Today it has this weird meaning that this man is not strong, he is a coward, etc. It will go away,” he says. “It will be looked upon: you are a grown up man when you own your problems and healthily deal with them.”
