EVERYDAY, countless men face silent battles behind brave faces and strong smiles.<\/p>\n
This month, we\u2019re reminded of the importance of checking in \u2014 not just when things seem wrong, but especially when everything seems fine.<\/p>\n
According to a male advocator who requested to remain anonymous and who has gone through a lot with mental issues, said men\u2019s mental health in PNG is one of those issues where we do not go into.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost my family, my wife and children, I couldn\u2019t see my kids and talk to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy kids\u2019 mother wouldn\u2019t let me talk to them. I had no communications with them. Restraining orders were put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe easiest way that men deal with mental health is to find another brother, get a six-pack of beer and sort themselves out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest issues that we have with mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to find mental health and help for men\u2019s mental health in the country, it\u2019s very pretty much next to zero, because trust me, I\u2019ve tried it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy very first experience with mental health issues was when I went through a couple of really life-changing situations in my life that I had to come back from.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I reached out for health and support, I couldn\u2019t find any agencies in PNG, but what you\u2019ll find is that there\u2019s more mental health services for women. And there\u2019s literally zero people in this country that actually do it for men,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said Dorothy and her team from the Community First PNG Project Initiatives were actually the first ones that he came across.<\/p>\n
As a professional counselor and mental health advocate, Dorothy Koch says in PNG, we don\u2019t talk about mental health enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be good to explore this silent killer, even amongst males.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe brush it off like it\u2019s a weakness. We tell people to toughen up. But the truth is, behind closed doors, too many are breaking down. \u201cThis is serious, it\u2019s life or death,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The male advocator said everyone has triggers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut with us, certain things will trigger us. And then all of a sudden, without realising it, you go into a cycle where you become self-destructive and then you become destructive to those around you.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, number one; change comes from you.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecondly, it\u2019s about breaking the cycle, thirdly it\u2019s about getting help, lastly, it\u2019s about knowing that you have family around you.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdentify the ones, the good family around you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the biggest thing about men\u2019s mental health awareness in PNG is for men go to trained professionals.<\/p>\n
If you want to really get some in-depth help, call Dorothy and her team on 71471518, to assist you with mental health issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EVERYDAY, countless men face silent battles behind brave faces and strong smiles. This month, we\u2019re reminded of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,65717,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-154555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mens-mental-health-in-png","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114618944955821813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}