Australian men's help-seeking pathways for anxiety

Abstract

Globally, there has been a substantial increase in the number of men being diagnosed with anxiety disorders. Despite this, men's mental health research often focusses on uncovering why men don't, rather than why they do, seek help. Within this context, men's help-seeking pathways for anxiety are poorly understood. This study mapped the help-seeking pathways of 419 Australian-based men for anxiety. Respondents 16 to 77 years-old (M = 40.92 years, SD = 15.36) reported multiple instances of help-seeking (n = 321, 77%) elaborating on their drivers for help-seeking via an open-text qualitative survey. Thematic analysis of men's responses was used to generate three themes, first detailing common tipping points of men's anxiety (namely relationship issues and work stress), and second, the reclusive causes and consequences of men's anxiety (burdensome symptoms and unmet expectations). These two themes converged into a third theme of help-seeking where defeatist (i.e., resigned abandonment self-management strategies) or defiant (proactive motivation in reaction to new events) motivations propelled men into either assisted or solitary help-seeking pathways. The current study findings afford important insights about the drivers that lead men to seek help for anxiety across the life course. Interventions targeting men's help-seeking for anxiety should accentuate the potential benefits of community-based mental health treatment within the context of men's social connectedness. Such interventions would also benefit from leveraging positive masculine ideals including strength, emotional-control and competition which can be both a barrier to, and driver for, help-seeking in the context of men's anxiety.