4 ms·
News just in: talking about your mental health, especially for men, does not improve your mental health. For the majority of men, most of the time. If it did,
by perpetuallunch 2mo ago
News just in: talking about your mental health, especially for men, does not improve your mental health.
For the majority of men, most of the time.
If it did, shouldn’t we see mental health improving by now?
- debesyla 2mo agoWait, it doesn't? Genuine question. Where can I read about this theory more?
- throwaway173738 2mo agoAt the He-Man club of course. We all face our challenges with stoicism like Odysseus when his sailors got eaten.
- thin_carapace 2mo agorephrased for ease of interpretation - venting about a problem is nice just as stretching a muscle is nice. stretching doesn't fix the root cause of muscle soreness though, just as venting does nothing to fix the issue. emotionally re-reacting is likely to result in strengthening of existing associations, which is more likely to cause repetition of a problem scenario, as opposed to leading to scenario avoidance.
- tunesmith 2mo ago"talking about your mental health" does not mean re-parroting your trauma. there's understanding, re-framing, forgiving, all kind of other things that go beyond the limited belief that talking just calcifies trauma.
- andsoitis 2mo agoDo you know a single person who has cured their mental health problem?
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2mo agoYes. What point are you trying to make?
- hn_go_brrrrr 2mo agoI think that's obvious. He doesn't know anyone who has, and thinks the whole thing is a waste of time.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- pezezin 2mo agoYes, me. I suffered some serious depression that I cured through therapy and medication. Discussing it openly with my family and friends certainly helped. As the saying goes, recognizing that you have a problem is the first step to being able to solve it.
- thin_carapace 2mo agoventing is a form of talking about mental health. there are other forms that the problem statement doesn't apply to, like your examples. but the statement does apply to my example, therefore we can't say that talking about mental health is exclusively a positive behaviour.
- Moomoomoo309 2mo agoCan you think of anything you can do that is exclusively a positive behavior? Drinking water in excess kills you, excess breathing kills you, excess exercise kills you, I think the logic here can be used to sow the seeds of uncertainty in nearly anything, honestly.
- thin_carapace 2mo agoyour argument is like mayonnaise, liberally applicable in many situations, but it's a bit bland and not the condiment I'd choose for this dish
- kstrauser 2mo agoLOL, I’d love to see that peer reviewed paper. Which one are you citing?
- drekipus 2mo agoNothing ever happens unless there's a paper to back it up
- kstrauser 2mo agoMore like: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. That wild claim needs some backing, lest we all be justified in making fun of it.
- perpetuallunch 2mo agoThe extraordinary claim is that talking to a ‘counsellor’ or ‘psychologist’ has any net positive benefits that are measurable in any way.
- jibal 2mo agoThe extraordinary claim at issue is YOURS: > News just in: talking about your mental health, especially for men, does not improve your mental health. > For the majority of men, most of the time.
- perpetuallunch 2mo agoOne thing talking to a therapist has a proven ability to do is fatten their purse at your expense. There are no measurable benefits better than placebo.
- jibal 2mo agoStill no evidence or other support for these claims = bad faith.
- singingtoday 2mo agoThis is a fascinating assertion. I would love to read more about it. Can you please provide some sources?
- perpetuallunch 2mo ago[flagged]
- preg_match 2mo agoYou can't hand wave "do your own research" when you make a bold, and frankly obviously incorrect, claim. You can only do that hand waving when you say something most people already know to be true. "The sky is blue" -> okay, do your own research. "Pigs can fly" -> either show a research paper or shut up, you're wasting everyone's brain cells.
- perpetuallunch 2mo agoIn the same way that the sky is blue, talking about one’s own mental health, especially for boys and men, is a net negative. It’s obvious once you see it. You’ll come round.
- preg_match 2mo agoThis isn't an argument. But, to dig deeper: I think it will feel negative at first because, obviously, addressing negative emotions is a negative experience. But introspection is really about knowledge. Being ignorant to yourself, of all things, does not breed positivity, it breeds masking, deception, and self-destruction. A lot of men, and women too, have horribly self-destructive tendencies. For many men, their biggest enemy is themselves. And it's a vicious cycle, where every time they pick themselves up, they pick up the metaphorical shotgun and blow off their own foot. In order to fix these tendencies, we must first identify them. That's actually the hardest part. Most self-destructive people don't know they are self-destructive, which is why the problem is allowed to continue. In order to identify the tendencies, we require fierce introspection. Introspection is a combination of radical honesty and analysis. Self-destruction breeds insecurity, jealousy, anger, violence, dissociation, and an inflated sense of self. Practically all the losers and bums you see around are really just self-destructive. They could do better, but they choose not to, because they don't think they deserve it. They view themselves as losers and bums, and so they are so. How do people know if they're self-destructive? If they repeatedly have failed relationships. If they abuse substances or food. If they repeatedly run to the same behavior as a coping mechanism. The gym is a common one for men. If they chronically make poor decisions. If they push people away. And, if they're not able to talk about their feelings or be vulnerable. These problems are not innate, they can be fixed. But it's 100% impossible to fix a problem you can't even identify. So, talk about it. Talking to someone trusted can aide your introspection process. Although, nobody can do the work for anybody else. Ultimately, it comes from within. And, I will say, if you don't have the practice, it is hard. Very, very hard to talk about your feelings. That's a sign, though. Nothing worth doing is easy. You don't have to be a slave to your emotions, where they come and go and do as they please with your body and mind. They aren't some other mystical thing that cannot be spoken about. You create them. So, you need to understand them. Only then can you control them. And, never mistake masking, coping or ignorance for control. They are the complete absence of control.
- racoonportfolio 2mo agoMy brother is a retired vet. Without talk therapy he'd be dead or in prison by now.
- perpetuallunch 2mo agoYou can’t know that. His life isn’t a double-blind randomised placebo controlled study. There is no second instance of him to falsify your claim.