May is the month of mental health awareness, which features campaigns to champion the right to mental health.
Mental ill-health is the single most critical issue facing young people and adults and early detection and intervention are pivotal to influencing trajectory and preventing life course recurrence.
Mental health is an area of great concern across the world and Kenya is no exception.
It is reported that one out of four people who seek healthcare in Kenya have a mental health condition.
Depression is common and there are increasing rates of substance and alcohol use disorders.
In the past few decades, cases of suicide in the country have risen at a rate of 58 per cent with data showing that more men are likely to die by suicide than women.
Depression is one of the most common mental health problems among Kenyan men which goes undiagnosed as most people do not recognise the symptoms.
It is estimated that over 60 per cent of Kenyan men suffering from poor mental health either do not know it or are not seeking treatment.
Mental health among men often goes untreated because they are far less likely to seek mental health treatment than women.
This is attributed to the fact that most family members and colleagues do not recognise depression in men.
Even doctors may fail to see the signs of depression in a man because they do not always classically present the issue.
A majority of men are unwilling to discuss mental and emotional problems having been brought up to believe that it is unmanly to speak about whatever you are feeling.
They fear that they will lose the respect of their family, friends and workmates.
Men, therefore, attach little importance to seeking treatment and hide any symptoms of depression rather than come out and ask for help coping with it.
They have been stereotyped or made to believe that any African man should man up, they are not supposed to show their emotions or be vulnerable.
In addition, most Kenyan families resist mental health treatment with the belief that one only visits a psychiatrist if he runs mad in layman's language.
Society is not used to men voicing out their issues and such efforts of men opening up are often mocked and met with outright hostility and characterised as a sign of weakness.
Depression and suicide are ranked as the leading causes of death among men.
Data on the global health burden demonstrates that young men have a distinct health risk profile from their young female counterparts, thus underscoring different prevention and intervention needs.
Evidence indicates that boys disconnect from health-care services during adolescence, marking the beginning of a progression of health-care disengagement and associated barriers to care.
This includes presenting to services differently, experiencing an inadequate or poorly attuned clinical response, and needing to overcome ubiquitous societal attitudes and self-stigma to access available services.
These statistics are troubling because they reinforce the notion that males are less likely to seek help and more likely than women to turn to dangerous and unhealthy behaviours.
This is even though Kenya prides itself on various mental health treatment modalities and services available.
There is still a disproportionate difference between the number of men experiencing mental health disorders and those seeking treatment.
Mental health, particularly among men, has gained momentum in becoming the other silent killer.
If a man around you exhibits suicidal tendencies or attempts suicide, do not put him down or ask him to suck it up and deal with his emotions like a man.
His behaviour is a cry for help, do not ignore it. Additionally, society needs to start adopting strategies that look at men and masculinity as allies in men’s mental health.
To effectively tackle male depression, men need to be encouraged to talk freely about their feelings.
Managing editor at Viral Tea Kenya and Student at Rongo University
Edited by Kiilu Damaris