Men of Despair
Last year I read Richard Reeve’s, “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to Do About it” (2022). You can find an excellent review of the key points here. Something that stood out to me was Reeve’s commentary on “deaths of despair”, coined by economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton in 2015 to describe the phenomenon of deaths that are associated with alcohol and drug use, suicide, and alcohol-related liver disease (Case & Deaton, 2015). Deaths of despair have been unexpectedly rising since 1999, with a combined increase of 174% for suicide and overdose deaths (Stefanovics et al., 2022). Reeves points out that deaths of despair disproportionately affect men, particularly working-class men or those with fathers that did not attend college/university. Other researchers have now coined the term “lives of despair” to draw attention to the larger “bottom” part of the iceberg, in which many more are living with serious mental health and drug problems than previous generations (Stefanovics et al., 2022).
My clinical goal is to keep in mind that the man in front of me is facing challenges around shifting economic landscapes (i.e. globalization), new and more deadly drugs, redefined concepts of masculinity and more. He may have a clear grasp of these challenges or not. In counselling we try to build his own understanding of the forces he is up against. When he understands the challenge he can find the resources in himself, his community, and his faith to move through despair and towards life-giving goals.
Case, A. Deaton, A. (2015). Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. PNAS 112(49):15078–15083
Na, P. J., Stefanovics, E. A., Rhee, T. G., & Rosenheck, R. A. (2022). “Lives of despair” at risk for “deaths of despair”: tracking an under-recognized, vulnerable population. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 57(6), 1123–1134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02218-w
Reeves, R. V. (2022). Of boys and men : why the modern male is struggling, why it matters, and what to do about It. Brookings Institution Press.