This Men's Health Week, there has been lots of talk about health conditions men need to be aware of, including symptomless diseases such as prostate cancer.
But as well as thinking about your physical health, it's also important to take stock of your mental health and well-being.
In particular, experts have warned that it's crucial not to suppress your emotions in order to conform to any masculine stereotypes or the pressure to be the 'perfect' man.
Men are so often told that expressing emotion is a sign of 'weakness' but it's actually a very healthy thing to do.
A team of experts from the mental health and wellness community app, TRUCONNECT, spoke to The Mirror about the dangers of suppression on men's health and urged men not to bottle up their feelings, sharing how it can have worrying repercussions including stress, anxiety, and depression.
They said: "Suppression of emotions remains an all too common problem among men. At its worst, it can lead to depression and anxiety, and for men especially, it can also increase their risk of suicide.
"When we suppress thoughts and emotions, we push them out of conscious awareness. When we do this, we hope that the thoughts and emotions will go away and no longer affect us in any way.
"Unfortunately, the human brain doesn't work like that. Instead, suppression may actually amplify our negative experiences.
"This effect was shown with the classic white bear study. In the study, people were told not to think of a white bear.
"Simply being told not to think about a white bear to suppress these thoughts led these people to think of white bears far more frequently. This research helped us see that suppression is an ineffective way to decrease negative thoughts and emotions."
The experts went on to share how research on suppression has found that it tends to cause three main results - an immediate surge in unwanted thoughts, unwanted thoughts intruding upon other thoughts, and a greater occurrence of unwanted thoughts.
"This means that suppression has paradoxical effects - the more we try to force our thoughts or emotions away, the stronger they become," they explained.
"It's not totally clear why this happens, but some people suggest suppression doesn't work because some part of us wanted to think about these unwanted thoughts.
"Suppressing them interrupts the process and therefore prevents us from completing the goal of thinking about these thoughts. So, our brain keeps bringing us back to the thoughts we're trying to suppress.
"An alternative hypothesis is that when we suppress a thought, we label it in our brains as bad. Unfortunately, our brains have unconscious processes that help us keep an eye out for bad things. So, our brain may try to keep these things in mind."
They went on to share some tips on dealing with suppression that could help improve your mental health and well-being.
- Write about your feelings. Research suggests that writing about your feelings may be an effective way to process those feelings more quickly and move past them.
- Practice acceptance. Accepting emotions may help decrease them more quickly, while acceptance may also be helpful for calming anxiety or panic.
- Try cognitive reappraisal. Research on emotion regulation often contrasts suppression with reappraisal as the more effective strategy. Reappraisal often involves thinking about the potential positive outcomes of your situation or how grateful you are that the situation isn't worse.
- Exercise. If you're having a hard time with some negative thoughts or emotions, doing vigorous exercise may be helpful. If your body and brain are forced to use resources elsewhere (to do the exercise), this seems to help distract the mind more easily.
TRUCONNECT is a mental health and wellness community app. It's part of The Original Fit Factory’s ecosystem of products and services that enhance the physical and mental well-being of individuals, businesses, and their employees to achieve a happier and more accessible way of living.
Do you have a health story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email courtney.pochin@mirror.co.uk
