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Anxiety BC talked about the role of generalized and acute anxiety in the lives of men.
The organization spoke about the personal experience of one man named Bruno Feldeisen who was aged 34 at the time of a first anxiety attack. He lived in New York. He was a chef with a solid reputation. He won competitions and awards, and the respect of colleagues and friends.
Feldeisen stated, “The light dimmed, my vision got narrow, I couldn’t breathe… I thought I was having a heart attack.” Feldeisen has left his French home country for America several years earlier.
What was the source of this mans stress and strife? It came from the mind. He was an abused child by a drug-addicted mother.
“While Feldeisen had learned to suppress his trauma, the past caught had up with him. Even though the cardiologist reassured him his heart was fine, Feldeisen couldn’t stop worrying about his health,” the article explained.
Feldeisen talked about the mind focusing on the tight chest and the dizziness. The physical symptoms of the panic attack. These symptoms would in turn cause a panic attack. He continued to search for an illness on his body.
It is noted that his old life “melted away. He stopped going out in public because restaurants made his back spasm and busy streets caused hyperventilation. He quit his job, drifted, and eventually went bankrupt. ‘I didn’t enjoy life anymore,’ he said.’
These are common stories for men with anxiety. Men report anxiety half as much as women. This is according to the research director in the Thomson Anxiety Disorder Center at Toronto’s (Ontario) Sunnybrook Hospital, Dr. Neil Rector.
The article explained, “Data from the Anxiety Disorders Association of Canada show that one in four Canadians will have at least one anxiety disorder during their lifetime, which translates to one in six men, all of whom may suffer the same crippling consequences as Feldeisen: they can lose their jobs and damage their relationships, said Dr. Rector.”
This led to an internal question about the sex differences. The reasons for why women have less anxiety than the men. Dr. Mohamed Kabbaj, Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Neurosciences at Florida State University, stated, “For men, the male hormone testosterone protects against anxiety.”
The role of testosterone in the reduction of anxiety results from neurotransmitter load differences based on the interactions of the male typical hormone with the brain. It boosts GABA and serotonin. Those two neurotransmitters are found in the low anxiety people.
It also reduces the level of activity in the fear center of the brain, the amygdala, important for the fight-or-flight phenomena. This means a reduction on several levels from a neurological and biochemical position. These lead to lower anxiety.
The article continued, “Additionally, it diminishes fear and anxiety by dampening the activity of the circuit linking the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis with the amygdala. Finally, testosterone modulates the release of the hormone cortisol, in response to stress.”
Lower fear, lower stress, and lower anxiety for men who tend to be higher in testosterone, men who do feel anxiety, though, feel something unbeknownst to the women, which is shame.
Dr. Rector said, “If you’re male and have been socialized to be active and controlling, anxiety is (perceived) as a sign of weakness.” Men have an internal dialogue oriented around weakness with viewing themselves as failing and vulnerable. This creates an embarrassment.
From that embarrassment, the men do not want to reach out. So, when men do reach out to the professional help, their condition appears far worse than the women.
For example, Feldeisen elaborated, “I was ashamed and disappointed in myself… I was not a masculine man (anymore)… If a man says ‘I have a mental illness’, that’s equal to craziness.” Can’t have that, men must be strong, so goes the narrative.
Men restrict themselves. Those around them may exacerbate this because they do not want to hear about this as well. It is not a judgment of the family and friends or on the men, but in the culture created through expectations and historical inertia.
“Many men with anxiety express similar feelings as Feldeisen. Instead of seeking help, 30% of men with anxiety turn to substances as a way to cope with their symptoms, said Dr. Jeffery Wardell,” Anxiety BC stated, “post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Men’s greater impulsivity also accounts for their higher reliance on substances.”
Women have fewer positive beliefs about alcohol. Men have higher positive beliefs about alcohol. The anxious women will turn to female friends in time of needing some substances while anxious.
The women will limit consumption because of the greater expectations and judgments on them. Men, in other words, are seen as engaging in male behaviour if they drink, even if it as a masculine self coping mechanism.
Dr. George Koob, Director of the US-based National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said, “People suffering from anxiety take substances in an effort to self-medicate.” Alcohol and similar substances of common overuse are ones that naturally hijack the reward centers of the brain, the mesolimbic dopamine reward system built for the pleasurable stimuli from food and sex.
There is an extra high from the substances. The user feels pleasure and so uses the substance more and more to quell greater and greater levels of anxiety. This is, apparently from the prior points, particularly true of the men.
“The ingestion of substances including alcohol, opioids, marijuana, and nicotine produces identical pleasure effects. When endorphins (the chemicals responsible for the “runner’s high”) are released by natural stimuli or by substances,” the reportage explained, “they bind to the same receptors as morphine, dulling emotional pain and calming the mind. It is this type of relaxation that people with anxiety are seeking when they turn to substances.”
Mr. Feldeisen went to the common one: alcohol. He drank two full glasses of wine at dinner in order to feel numb. Why numb? He wanted to rid himself of the anxious feelings after the first panic attack. It became an exogenous assistance in the prevention of coping with the anxiety.
The article continued, “While many men are reluctant to admit their anxiety, making it difficult for loved ones to find out what’s going on, there are some tell-tale clues, said Dr. Martin Antony, Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto.”
“If the man in your life starts to avoid things he used to enjoy or becomes irritable, these can be signs of an anxiety disorder. Anger is more acceptable for some men than anxiety,” Antony stated.
Men suffer too. However, they do not reach out. They reach out in silence. They experience anxiety and depression, like women, and even commit suicide at times, too. For those concerned about the men, they should look into the trouble in concentration, the difficult in sleeping, and the loss in an interest in sex as symptoms of potential anxiety of the men in their lives.
The men we all know and love, but who can, at times, be not succeeding all that well in coping with anxiety. Dr. Maureen Whittal, who is a psychologist in private practice in British Columbia, suggested, “Instead, reassure him that his condition is extremely common… Tell him ‘It doesn’t have to be this hard’. Find him a family doctor when he’s ready, and you can offer to accompany him. Suggest you treat the visit as an experiment, and don’t ask for a commitment to treatment.”
Feldeisen lacked a partner to motivate him. He has a son. However, the son was not at the age of being able to help him at the time. Feldeisen stated, “I told myself enough is enough… We need to fix this. My son needs me to be the best person I can be… My therapist is one of the best in Canada.”
Dr. Rector talked about the hope for the future for men. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is an important methodology to help with some distorted thinking patterns. It is a first defense or intervention in the combatting of anxiety disorders.
Apparently, it works about 60-70% of the time. Rector said, “Some patients can also be treated with medication, while more severe cases may require both counseling and pills.”
Now, Feldeisen is a thribing person. That, potentially, makes him a better chef as a boss or colleague and a better dad. He concluded, “You don’t need to be ashamed of the life you’re living—by seeking treatment, you could fully live the life you want.”
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Image Credits: Pixabay