loped in which females were met with nurturing support and genuine concern, and males were more often confronted with distancing and even blatant hostility. Another contributor to male depression is the prevalent idea that men, if they should have the audacity to possess emotions, should at least have the good courtesy to be unaffected by them. Long-standing traditional male heroes are often men of steel (Superman, Robocop, the Terminator). This illustrates the social stigma that to be a real man, one cannot be vulnerable. Our society rewards a man who ignores and endures pain before it awards a man who is affected by pain and strives to change it. This reality teaches depressed men to hide their emotional pain by becoming workaholics, alcoholics, emotionally distant and/or physically abusive with their families. These problems are more often thought of as being male problems, but not often thought of as being caused by male depression. Psychologist Terrence Real has found that men tend to manifest depression differently than women. He believes that this is a large reason why men do not get diagnosed with depression as often as they should. Therapists are looking for certain characteristics of depression that are more common in depressed women than in depressed men. More often than not, women tend to internalize their depression, whereas men externalize it. For example, in mental hospitals women rank much higher in incidents of self-mutilation, and men rank much higher in incidents of outward violence. Unfortunately, even when men do go to therapy for their externalized symptoms, such as alcoholism or abusive tendencies, the underlying cause--their depression--is never treated. Frighteningly, many psychologists are now theorizing that the shorter life span of men is not due to biology, but due to mens socialized roles of stoicism and their denial of mental or physical pain. Ironically, the stigma that portrays males as inv...
