When I heard the news that Sen. John Fetterman has been hospitalized for depression, I felt a sense of camaraderie with him — and gratitude to him for speaking out.
I’m among the tens of millions of other men who have experienced depression. I know how strong the pressures are against admitting it. And because my work at Gympass focuses on wellness at workplaces around the world, I see every day how much people in all walks of life are struggling with mental health. They need to know that getting treatment for mental wellbeing is just as important as getting treatment for all other forms of wellbeing.
It’s good to see a lot of support coming in for Fetterman. Some people are saying they hope it’s a sign mental health stigmas are starting to subside. But the reactions are not entirely positive.
As columnist Sean Collier wrote in Pittsburgh Magazine, “representatives of a certain type of harebrained political opinion criticized or even mocked Fetterman, mistaking depression for some sort of weakness. Even in an age of unabashed cruelty, that’s a depraved stance to take… How they can walk through the day without crumpling under the weight of their own shame is beyond me.”
To view depression as weakness is to cast aspersions on huge numbers of people. The latest figures show that about 22% of women and men have reported symptoms of depressive disorder in the last two weeks alone. That does not include the many people like me who have experienced it in the past.
And while women are officially diagnosed with depression twice as often, men who do have depression often go undiagnosed — and men die by suicide far more often. When “male-typical” symptoms of depression are considered, “gender disparities in diagnosis disappear,” the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics reports.
Depression is also even more common among people who, like Fetterman, have had a stroke. Given all this, a senator getting treated for depression should be no more surprising or concerning than a senator being treated for a blood, lung, or heart disorder.
But the continuing belief that it’s a sign of weakness creates dangers. People internalize that idea and can ignore their own struggles. That’s what happened to me. I spent years burying my thoughts and feelings. Then, when I achieved a big career goal and still could not feel happy, I finally had to take a hard look at myself. I realized how wrong I had been, and that piecing through what made me depressed was a necessity to be a strong, healthy man.
When I got to a much better place, I began sharing my story publicly, including through columns in Newsweek, NBC News, and the World Economic Forum. Soon, I began hearing from people across the country and around the world who were going through something similar and too afraid to tell anyone.
I also came to see how the stigmas surrounding mental health are damaging workplaces. Because so few people feel comfortable talking about their depression and other mental health concerns, many executives don’t realize that their employees need help. Businesses lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost workdays and lower productivity due to depression alone.
Helping employees address depression has huge positive effects. The National Safety Council and the University of Chicago have found that “organizations that support mental health see a return of $4 for every dollar invested.”
A study conducted by Gympass, The State of Work-Life Wellness, found that a gap exists “between the demand for mental health services and their current availability” in workplaces. And through my work, I see that many well meaning executives simply don’t know that they need to make this a priority — or what to do about it.
Making sure your company’s wellbeing benefits cover mental health is just a bare beginning. Providing access to counselors is helpful as well. But our study finds that much more is needed. In fact, many employees say having access to various options for physical exercise is the most important part of caring for their mental health.
Businesses also need to create cultures that provide emotional workplace safety by educating employees about psychological health, normalizing discussions about these issues, and making sure people have tools to address them.
My heart goes out to Sen. Fetterman. I hope he recovers and thrives. And I hope his example will inspire people everywhere to take steps to improve their own wellbeing.
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Governor Tom Wolf on Flickr under CC License
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