How to Love Yourself Like You Love Your Music:
To continue to support the amazing work done by the Movember charity and find out more men’s mental health, Emanate caught up with Dr Jubin Roomiani. Specialising in psychiatry, Dr Roomiani (MBChB) is an Australian born, New Zealand trained doctor who shares with us his view on the issues facing men today and gives us some tips to keep our heads above water.
It’s not easy to address mental health problems, and even more so for men. Why do you think that is?
Mental health is increasingly gaining recognition as a key marker for societal well-being and productivity. For a variety of reasons, including the complexity of these conditions, the comparatively low investment and resourcing and historical socio-cultural attitudes and associated fear based stigma, mental health may have languished behind equivalent physical health care for many years. The good news is that increasing education, advocacy and resources into the sector focused on prevention, reducing stigma and improving outcomes is changing these.
When thinking about barriers specific to men, once again the issues appear to be multifactorial; whilst there are unique discrepancies in the prevalence of conditions (For example, depression is more common in women), there are unique differences in gender engagement in treatment with far more women being happy to engage in psychology treatments (such as cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT, an evidence based talking therapy for depression) when compared to men who suffer from the same condition. This would indicate that there are barriers to accessing appropriate help. We know that prevention and early recognition of mental health problems is really important in terms of reducing their severity, time till recovery and potential days off work. We see similar discrepancies in the physical health of men also which may suggest common origins for men’s health in general.
It is likely that complex and interacting aspects of biological features (that is, specific health related influences related to being male), combined with psycho-social features of traditional gender-roles, societal & media pressures on wellbeing/aesthetics, high prevalence of alcohol and drug use and rapid development of digitalisation have played a part. Finally, potential losses of traditional family and peer support structures may also be implicated in this discrepancies.
Have you noticed a change in this trend?
Most definitely! But we still have a lot of work ahead of us as
around 54% of people with mental illness do not access help.
It is certainly encouraging to see young men access new mediums for mental health literacy including YouTube, podcasts and online to learn more, communicate and access help. Increasing mental health awareness and reducing stigma is an important first step.
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From your experience, what are the most common mental health issues faced by men today?
This is a bit tricky to answer. For recognisable clinical disorders; we know that men experience a higher prevalence of substance use disorders (including alcohol, amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, smoking, marijuana use), impulse control disorders (such as gambling, acts of violence) and are at increased risk of suicide.
In contrast, women experience increased rates of depression, anxiety and panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Women are also significantly more at risk of domestic violence.
We’ve heard that the pressure of social media may lead to the development of some mental health disorders. Would you agree? Would you be able to provide any examples?
It is not yet known fully what impacts the role of social media have had in terms of mental health, but early studies suggest concerns regarding negative influences in terms of self-esteem, social isolation, negative self-evaluation and online bullying to name a few. This is of particular concern with young people who are often already at a challenging period of life transition from adolescence to adulthood. We know for example that the onset of many mental health conditions typically begins in middle to late adolescence and peaks between 18–24 years old.
There is evidence that use of social media platforms activates pathways in the brain akin to gambling and substance use and may result in similar issues with addiction and negative experiences. A common sense approach would be to use these applications in moderation and if you’re having trouble cutting down or experiencing distress book an appointment with your GP to talk about it.
This is juxtaposed by some of the potential advantages which technology offers in terms of accessibility to mental health care for people in regional and rural areas, novel ways of health education and the potential for using digital platforms to deliver health interventions such as telehealth assessments and dCBT (digital cognitive behavioural therapy).
What’s the connection between creativity and mental health? Does creating art affect the creator?
Many gifted and talented individuals have experienced mental health issues throughout their lives. Contrary to popular belief, there’s no strong evidence to suggest that artists are at increased risk of mental illness nor does mental illness selectively affect individuals that pursue the arts. Having said that, we believe that creative individuals may have psychologically divergent processes. For example, they may be higher in personality traits of openness to experience (associated with increased motivation, intelligence and desire to seek out novel experiences) which may be advantageous in some ways but may also increase their sense of distress when unable to pursue these goals or they’re forced to suppress these. We know for example that sublimation (a psychological defence associated with displacing unacceptable or distressing emotions into a constructive or positive behaviour such as the arts) is a mature defence mechanism often seen in artistic individuals which is strongly protective in terms of their mental health.
Being an artist can be stressful, do you have any tips for self care?
It may sound a little cliché, but often the most basic things are rarely done consistently and routinely.
1. A great starting point would be to establish a regular sleep routine, waking and sleeping at the same time each day of the week including weekends
2. Begin exercising in a sport you enjoy for 30–40 minutes at least three times a week but ideally more often. For example, aerobic exercise and yoga are evidence based for their antidepressant properties.
3. Getting regular sunlight each morning for a few minutes (in a sun-smart fashion) helps regulate your circadian rhythm (your body’s internal clock) and is associated with improved mood and sleep benefits.
4. Engaging in pleasurable healthy social and recreational activities, developing social connections with friends, your family and your local community is important.
5. Practice relaxation strategies including breathing exercises, mindfulness, meditation at times of stress.
6. Aim to reduce or eliminate negative influences on mental health including nicotine, alcohol and recreational drug use. For example, alcohol is a depressant and will also interact with prescribed medication. We know that marijuana is associated with increased risk of psychosis in young people and should definitely be avoided in anyone with any personal or family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder.
7. Know how to get help, ensure the information you read online is accurate and from a reputable source; The Black Dog Institute, Orygen Australia, Lifeline and Beyond Blue are great resources to name a few but If you’re having trouble or have questions, make an appointment with your GP as there’s an abundance of support, advice and encouragement available to you and any effort in the right direction is progress!
Thanks so much for speaking with us!
