Why Men Often Describe Mental Health Issues Indirectly: The Articulation Gap
There is a difference between feeling pain and being able to describe it. A child who falls and scrapes his knee points immediately to the wound. An adult suffering from anxiety may spend years saying he is merely “busy”. A man battling depression may insist he is only “tired”. Another may describe loneliness as work pressure, irritability, or exhaustion. The suffering is real yet the language is missing.
This phenomenon, increasingly recognized by mental health professionals, is what a recent corporate wellness report calls the “Articulation Gap”. According to corporate health platform ekincare's report From Silence to Signal: India Inc.'s Mental Wellness Reckoning (2023-2026), a study analyzing over 6,000 counselling sessions across corporate employees, men are more clinically represented in anxiety and depression than women (38% versus 32%). however, they have trouble describing their struggles to the therapist or counsellor.
This phenomenon, increasingly recognized by mental health professionals, is what a recent corporate wellness report calls the “Articulation Gap”. According to corporate health platform ekincare's report From Silence to Signal: India Inc.'s Mental Wellness Reckoning (2023-2026), a study analyzing over 6,000 counselling sessions across corporate employees, men are more clinically represented in anxiety and depression than women (38% versus 32%). however, they have trouble describing their struggles to the therapist or counsellor.