I’d rather admit I can’t get it up... Let’s talk about feeling crap

In the UK, over 4500 men kill themselves each year and two-thirds of drink-related deaths are male. More men hang themselves than die on the roads.

Men's Health Week starts today and the Men’s Health Forum is challenging men to talk about feeling crap before acting on it and challenging health professionals to help them do it.

Feeling down is a bigger taboo than pretty much anything else for many men. The MHF's new campaign tries to highlight this by suggesting a whole host of embarrassing subjects that men might be MORE likely to admit to than admitting to a mental health problem. Some are amusing - such as a liking for Justin Bieber - and some are deadly serious - like erectile dysfunction.

Men and women experience mental health problems in roughly equal numbers, yet men are much less likely to be diagnosed and treated for it.

The consequences can be fatal – the Men’s Health Forum has long highlighted that 3 in 4 suicides are by men and that 73% of people who go missing are men.

Slogans used in the new Men’s Health Week campaign include:

• I’d rather admit I can’t get it up... Let’s talk about feeling crap
• I’d rather admit I like Justin Bieber... Let’s talk about feeling down
• I’d rather admit I’m a bad driver... Let’s talk about feeling down
• I’d rather admit I hate football... Let’s talk about feeling down

Martin Tod, chief executive of the Men’s Health Forum, said:
'Suicide is the unspoken killer taking the lives of far too many men. Many men suffer alone or seek solace in drink. We have to find ways to make it easier for men to talk about their health before it’s too late.'

'There are things that are hard for many of us to talk about and feeling crap is one of them. This is how men talk – if we get the words out we would say we’re feeling crap, not that we’re feeling ‘a little sad’.'

'If all men could talk about how they were feeling with confidence, I don’t think we’d be looking at horrific figures like these. Whatever the problem, your GP has heard it before. And these days there are telephone and online options too. Don’t bottle it up.'