Men Battle Great Depression

While it may be true that women are at higher risk for depression than men, the pendulum may be swinging the other way, especially when seen through the prism of the Great Recession.

Men, especially those in middle age, got clobbered. Some found themselves without work for the first time in their adult lives. It was a shock to the system, from which many have yet to recover (and, sadly, some may never recover).

Men who worked hard for two or three decades, with no break in employment in their chosen profession, were tossed aside as the recession deepened and its lingering pain widened.

Employers, fighting for survival, dumped loyal and veteran male employees who found themselves suddenly unemployed and ill-prepared for the financial and emotional fallout. They were sucker-punched and saddled with piles of debt.

In some homes, women, for the first time, became the primary breadwinners for their families in a stark reversal of traditional gender roles.

Inside Your Head

With serious social and cultural changes, men appear to be at increasingly higher risk of developing depression, notes Dr. Boadie Dunlop of Emory University in Atlanta, in an editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

When the psychiatrist began recruiting subjects for a depression study, he enlisted the help of local sports radio shows, and was surprised by the tremendous response he received — from men, reports Alice Park for Time.com.

“We were really impressed with the number of men coming in with depression related to employment or marital conflict,” Dunlop says.

Where Jobs Went

The Great Recession of recent years brought some of those issues to a head, he says, as downsizing and high unemployment highlighted the death of manufacturing and labor-intensive jobs, which have traditionally been held by men.

About 75 percent of the jobs lost in the downturn belonged to men.

Innovations in technology (think online news instead of print news), as well as outsourcing (think overseas TV set manufacturing) to countries where manual labor is less expensive, are compressing this sector, forcing more men than women out of work.

With men culturally shouldering the role of primary breadwinner for their families, unemployment hits men particularly hard, as their self-esteem, an important factor in depression risk, is often contingent on their role as provider.

Socially, Boadie says, despite many high profile cases of men admitting to depression, such as veteran broadcast journalist Mike Wallace (left) and actor, comedian, writer and film producer John Cleese, it's still difficult for most men to acknowledge feeling overwhelmed and out of control.

“To be depressed, to feel overwhelmed and not motivated to do things, are signs that have had the stigma attached to them of mental weakness,” Dunlop says. “And men traditionally have felt that they should just overcome them and snap out of it.”

Close To Home

It’s not reassuring to think the world has passed you by, especially if your career of three decades required you stay focused on breaking news.

As a veteran print journalist, my job was to report and edit the news, to be the eyes and ears for the public and provide an unbiased daily account of relevant and timely information.

But with the Great Recession, I found myself on the other side of the story and caught an economic riptide as the some of biggest newspapers in America, including my own, downsized practically overnight.

Journalism careers, mine included, ended abruptly and without any meaningful closure. I became a modern Rip Van Winkle, though I never slept. I merely blinked and suddenly what I did as a print journalist was no longer valued or wanted.

Did I take it personally? Yes, at first. But I later came to realize it’s all part of a natural order of things, regardless of your job or profession.

From My Notes

For the more fortunate among us, big trouble never really lands on the doorstep; it’s always the other guy who gets nailed. But for many of us, it never quite works that way.

My new attitude is simply this: Be prepared, flexible, and the best you can be at whatever you do – whether that’s mopping floors or signing big clients.

And, most important of all, never let your work define who you really are, what you bring to the table. That’s your call!

Ken Cocuzzo