Unmasking Male Depression
Male Depression
Men not only have a hard time admitting they’re depressed, they struggle even knowing they’re depressed. Part of the reason for this is that men don’t like to admit weakness. Many will take their struggles to the grave, unseen. But another part of men’s struggle to admit and even know they’re depressed is that men might not experience depression in the usual ways: low mood, sadness, crying. Rather, men might experience depression as anger, irritability, having a quick temper. This is especially the case with what has been called post-adrenal depression.
In his book, Unmasking Male Depression, Dr. Archibald Hart describes this form of depression that seems to particularly afflict men. As the name implies, post-adrenal depression is the “crash” that sets in once your adrenaline stops; that is, once you stop whatever stressful, adrenaline-pumping activity you were doing. Usually, this refers to your job. That means that men who experience this kind of depression usually feel it on Saturday. For pastors whose busiest day is on Sunday, you might experience the crash on Monday. Adrenaline, the “key stress hormone in our bodies,” is produced whenever we find ourselves in an emergency. In much earlier times, emergencies were few and far in between: whenever we spotted dinner in the form of a boar that needed to be taken down bare-handed, adrenaline was very effective, and very short lived. In modern times, there are still cases where we get the benefits of adrenaline without the consequences. If we find ourselves in an emergency, adrenaline is the perfect fuel — a sort of nitrous boost. But we were not meant to run on nitrous from nine to five. As Dr. Hart notes, “We are now so stressed out that we literally live one continuous emergency lifestyle.” As far as our body is concerned we are fighting wild beasts forty hours a week, and it is killing us. Early heart attacks is a very common price we pay for the stress we live with.
How do you know if you suffer from post-adrenal depression?
Symptoms of this include:
Intense depression of short duration (say, three days to one week), which occurs every few months, following a period of high demand.
Unusual difficulty in getting your energy going in the morning. Often you increase your coffee consumption to get a morning jump-start.
Being overcome by great tiredness or exhaustion whenever you stop moving, so you have to keep your activity going at all costs for fear that if you stop, you will crash.
Strange body sensations (called parasthesias) with tingling up and down the arms or across the chest, burning sensations (in the mouth or on the soles of your feet), or strange aches and pains in your joints and muscles.
High irritability, which you cannot control and which is sparked with the slightest incident or without justification whatsoever.
Feelings of panic, which are triggered by physical activity (like mowing the lawn) or exercise.
A profound sense of negativity with a bleak outlook.
A low-grade depression where you just want to lie around, have no interest in anything, and no ability to start anything.
Frequent tension headaches that come later in the day.
Vague sense of guilt when you are idle or just trying to relax.
What can you do about it?
Dr. Hart recommends re-engineering our relationship with the post-adrenaline crash. He writes, “…there is only way to deal with your post-adrenaline depression — cooperate with it.” As the adrenaline withdrawals begin to set in simply begin by recognizing them for what they are: your body is beginning to recover. He writes, “All the symptoms of post adrenaline depression…are purposeful: the low mood causes me to pull aside; the loss of interest makes me less likely to go and start a new activity; the loss of energy keeps me still so that my body, and especially my adrenal system, can have a rest” (121). If you think you might suffer from depression, please contact me. I am happy to meet with you and give you some tools so that you don’t have to keep putting yourself — and as is commonly the case, your family — through unnecessary difficulty. I have worked with many men in counseling over several years, and so understand the reluctance that men face in coming in for counseling. My style is respectful and practical; my goal is to simply give you the tools you need to improve your own life.