The most tragic indictor of a world out of balance is the suicide rate in males. At every age, males take their own lives at rates much higher than females: Male 10 to 14-year-olds have suicide rates 1.8 times higher than females Male 15 to 19-year-olds have suicide rates 4.0 times higher than females. During...
The #MeToo movement has drawn attention to much horrific male behavior and deservedly has received much coverage. The Kavanaugh hearings also brought forth a torrent of discussion of what is sometimes called toxic masculinity. Headlines and social media posts about sexism, sexual assault, and men’s general piggishness abound. The harmful effects of misogyny, male boorishness...Continue reading
The six weeks encompassing Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s—collectively called “the holidays”—are for most a magically unique time of year, filled with holiday carols, reunions, displays of colorful lights, love, and affection, often expressed through gift giving. But for some, the holidays bring hurt. Caused by factors including the weather, separation, death, stress, unrealistic expectations,...Continue reading
I’ll be 75 years old this year. My wife, Carlin, will be 80. Even our 5 children are rushing past mid-life. We’ve all had health challenges that we talk about with family, friends, and our health-care providers. But there’s one problem that remains hidden. It’s depression and bipolar disorder. My father suffered from them for...Continue reading
We’ve bought into the greatest con job in human history. We’ve been taught that civilization is the pinnacle of human achievement and saved us from a life that was solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish as the philosopher Thomas Hobbs described it. In fact, it is civilization that is solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish. We’ve been...Continue reading
Derrick, a 28-year-old Richmond, Ca., man with an associate’s degree, loves his job doing after-school mentoring, tutoring, and coaching sports with elementary students in west Oakland, but with only 21 hours at work each week at $12.50 per hour, he struggles to pay his $1,400 rent and take care of his 1-year-old daughter. “I like...
Steven Wilkerson, a former Marine who fought in Iraq and a father of three, makes $8 an hour at a Tampa fast-food restaurant. He usually gets off work and takes the bus home at 10 p.m., too late to see his kids before they go to bed. Wilkerson, 28, is just one of millions of...
Like millions of others in the U.S. and throughout the world, I’ve been depressed a lot in my life and I’ve taken medications to help relieve the hopelessness, irritability, and lack of energy that plagued me. In 2004, I wrote a book, The Irritable Male Syndrome: Understanding the 4 Key Causes of Depression and Aggression that gathered...Continue reading
I was five years old when my uncle drove me to the mental hospital. He was taking me to see my father who had suffered “a nervous breakdown.” Later I learned that he had become increasingly depressed because he couldn’t make a living supporting his family. Like me, he was a writer, and found it...Continue reading
Dear Mr. Dad: A few years ago, you wrote about the benefits of meditation for children. I honestly thought you were joking. But a counselor at my son’s school just recommended it, saying it could help my son’s severe anxiety. When I asked how to do it, he handed me a copy of your article!...Continue reading