My experience is men have more difficultly realizing and then admitting depression than women. Society tells us we should be tough, not cry, carry life's load all by ourselves, never need help and all the other garbage we're fed. Granted, it's our choice we believe this stuff, but most of us do.
So depression builds into something significant, but we don't want to recognize or deal with it. Most of us wrongly label it a weakness, and we want no part of being weak. And thinking about admitting this weakness is darn near absurd. It totally blows our image. The image is more of our self-image than what others image us to be. That's another blogging subject for later.
My idea? Turn depression into a strength. It truly can be. You have to be really tough, a real man, to do that. Our strength comes from our toughest battles, and the big D is no exception. My greatest strengths and maybe even strongest abilities come from the battle field of depression. So men, flip it around to a strength and be man enough to face it. Use depression as a building block, not a stumbling stone. Might just be the strongest block in your foundation.
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