Men at increased risk of mental illness post breakup, says study

Breakups are hard. Getting over the fact that things will never be the same between you and your partner is a painful process, and it can take years for someone to be at peace again. A new study has revealed that after a breakup, men are at higher risk for mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression and suicide. The study was published in ‘Social Sciences and Medicine – Qualitative Research in Health’. “Most men experienced the onset or worsening of mental illness symptoms during a distressed relationship or after a relationship breakup,” said study senior author Dr. John Oliffe, chair of research at Canada and a professor of nursing at UBC whose work focuses on men’s mental health. .

It noted that marital separation quadrupled the risk of male suicide and suggested that distressed relationships, as well as separation and divorce, contributed to men’s mental health problems.

Dr. Oliffe and the team from the UBC Men’s Health Research Program interviewed 47 men about their experiences with the breakup of an intimate partner relationship. When faced with conflict in their relationships, men tended to downplay the issues, causing the relationship to fracture further.

“Stereotypical masculinity plays a role in how men react to a broken relationship,” said Dr. Oliffe, who also heads UBC’s Reducing Male Suicide research excellence group. “For example, men’s uncertainty about how to articulate and resolve problems in the context of the relationship resulted in many men withdrawing rather than seeking help. Most of the men in the study were struggling with relationship transitions, such as bereavement, parenting or infidelity — and their primary goal was to avoid conflict.”

The study also found that men who were distressed after their breakup used substances, including alcohol, to cope with feelings such as anger, regret, sadness, shame and guilt. This adds to the immense uncertainty of what life might be like with less access to children, financial challenges, and loss of social connections.

Complicating these findings is the isolation and disruption caused by COVID-19 public health restrictions, which can lead to increased alcohol and substance use in the home, and exacerbate conflict, leading to a worsening mental health, Oliffe added. On the positive side, the study revealed that after a relationship breakup, men turned to a variety of resources to address their mental health needs.

“Help-seeking efforts among these men were broad and included individual or solitary efforts such as exercise, reading, and self-care, while other men leveraged existing networks or expanded their efforts to connect with support groups or attend therapy,” Gabriela Montaner pointed out. , project leader and co-author of the article.

Thinking about the implication for services, she explained that while men tend to wait until the crisis occurs before seeking help, they put a lot of time and effort into getting over the breakup and understanding their role in the breakup.

“We need to reconceptualize men’s mental health promotion to legitimately include self-help, informal resources, and male peer group services in addition to professional services.”

Dr. Oliffe added: “For a long time, we have treated separation and divorce as demographic data to examine the potential risk factor in men’s mental illness and suicide. The findings of the current study provide important context and directions for helping men build better relationships. And that’s the focus of our current work with Movember.”