Domestic Violence Appears More Likely for Same-Sex Couples

I've seen research suggesting that this is true in the past - but this adds to the evidence. It would be useful, too, to get a more comprehensive assessment of male same-sex domestic violence. As the article below notes, most of the research has been conducted on lesbians, not gay men or bisexuals.

We need to increase prevention eduction to the LGBT community, not just professional athletes and other high profile people.

Domestic Violence More Likely for Same-Sex Couples

By Janice Wood Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 21, 2014


Domestic violence occurs at least as frequently — and likely more so — between same-sex couples, according to a review of literature conducted by researchers at Northwestern Medicine.

“Evidence suggests that the minority stress model may explain these high prevalence rates,” said senior author Richard Carroll, associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a psychologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

“Domestic violence is exacerbated because same-sex couples are dealing with the additional stress of being a sexual minority. This leads to reluctance to address domestic violence issues.”

Previous studies have shown that domestic violence affects 25 percent to 75 percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. However, researchers believe that a lack of representative data and underreporting of abuse suggests even higher rates.

An estimated 25 percent of heterosexual women experience domestic abuse, according to researchers, who note that that percentage is “significantly lower” for heterosexual men.

“There has been a lot of research on domestic violence, but it hasn’t looked as carefully at the subgroup of same-sex couples,” Carroll said. “Another obstacle is getting the appropriate samples because of the stigma that has been attached to sexual orientation. In the past, individuals were reluctant to talk about it.”

The research that has examined same-sex domestic violence has concentrated on lesbians rather than gay men and bisexuals, according to the Northwestern scientists.

“Men may not want to see themselves as the victim, to present themselves as un-masculine and unable to defend themselves,” Carroll said.

He suggests that homosexual men and women may not report domestic violence for fear of discrimination and being blamed for abuse from a partner. They also may worry about their sexual orientation being revealed before they are comfortable with it.

“We need to educate health care providers about the presence of this problem and remind them to assess for it in homosexual relationships, just as they would for heterosexual patients,” Carroll said.

“The hope is that with increasingly deeper acceptance, the stress and stigma will disappear for these individuals so they can get the help they need.”

The review was published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy.

Source: Northwestern University

10 Health Benefits of Being in a Relationship (via Men's Journal)

Men's Journal has assembled 10 health benefits from being in a [healthy] relationship (they left out the healthy part, which is important - an unhealthy relationship is BAD for your health).

Judge for yourself whether you need to be in a relationship to get these benefits in your life (although, men in relationships live longer than those who are not and, generally, report greater life satisfaction).

10 Health Benefits of Being in a Relationship

Men's Journal – Taylor Kubota

Romantic relationships, no matter their length, can be complicated, frustrating, and demanding. Although every couple has their issues, overall, partnering can actually give our physical and psychological well-being a big boost.

“I think the big picture is pretty straightforward: Good relationships are good for our health and bad relationships are not,” says Christine Proulx, associate professor at the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri.

Some of the advantages of being in a relationship are straightforward, like having someone to talk to and share financial burdens with. Others are more surprising, like the fact that men in long-term relationships live longer. Read on to learn more about the health benefits of coupling and how they work.

Click the links below to read more on each topic.


Increased Dopamine and Testosterone



Longer Lifespan



Emotional Support



Greater Wealth



Gain a Confidant



Avoid Loneliness



More Leisure Time



Reduced Stress



Get Taken Care Of



Long-Term Happiness

New Insights Into Why Some Men Assault Women

New research reveals what many of us have known for years - men who are insecure in their masculinity are more likely to commit intimate partner violence. This is article is particularly relevant to the killings at UCSB on Friday of last week. That young man was incredibly insecure in his masculinity, not to mention in his sense of self as a whole.

Granted, most men who fit this profile do not progress beyond beating and/or emotionally abusing their partners, but fueled by grandiosity and delusions, with some misogyny from the MRAs and PUAs thrown in to make it even more toxic, Elliott Rodger exemplifies the most extreme end of the violence curve -  it's no longer a woman, it's all women; and it's no longer physical abuse, it's murder (and torture in his fantasies).

The article appears (will appear - this is an "online early" offering, likely due to the killings in Isla Vista) in Personality and Individual Differences (Volume 68, October 2014, Pages 160–164). The abstract is followed by a summary of the research from Pacific Standard (the article is pay-walled).

Full Citation:
Reidy, DE,  Berke, DS, Gentile, B, and Zeichner, A. (2014, Oct). Man enough? Masculine discrepancy stress and intimate partner violence. Personality and Individual Differences; 68, Pages 160–164. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.04.021

Man enough? Masculine discrepancy stress and intimate partner violence

Dennis E. Reidya, Danielle S. Berkeb, Brittany Gentileb, Amos Zeichner

Highlights

• Masculine socialization has been theorized to predispose men to IPV.
• However, gender role discrepancy stress has not been investigated.
• Gender role discrepancy stress and IPV were assessed via the M-Turk website.
• Discrepancy stress predicted psychological, physical, and sexual IPV.
• Implications for prevention are discussed.

Abstract

Research on gender roles suggests that men who strongly adhere to traditional masculine gender norms are at increased risk for the perpetration of violent and abusive acts toward their female intimate partners. Yet, gender norms alone fail to provide a comprehensive explanation of the multifaceted construct of intimate partner violence (IPV) and there is theoretical reason to suspect that men who fail to conform to masculine roles may equally be at risk for IPV. In the present study, we assessed effect of masculine discrepancy stress, a form of distress arising from perceived failure to conform to socially-prescribed masculine gender role norms, on IPV. Six-hundred men completed online surveys assessing their experience of discrepancy stress, masculine gender role norms, and history of IPV. Results indicated that masculine discrepancy stress significantly predicted men’s historical perpetration of IPV independent of other masculinity related variables. Findings are discussed in terms of potential distress engendered by masculine socialization as well as putative implications of gender role discrepancy stress for understanding and intervening in partner violence perpetrated by men.

* * * * * * * * *

New Insights Into Why Some Men Assault Women

By Tom Jacobs • May 28, 2014

A view over the University of California-Santa Barbara's lagoon to one of the Channel Islands. (Photo: Superchilum/Wikimedia Commons)

For some, the sense that they are not sufficiently masculine leads to stress, and ultimately to striking out at the women closest to them.

•

Last weekend’s tragic events outside the University of California-Santa Barbara, have ignited an impassioned national conversation about misogyny, male anger, and violence against women. Timely new research suggests physical abuse against wives and girlfriends may be triggered by a specific psychological state: The emotional stress that can result when males perceive themselves as less masculine than their peers and cultural role models.

A research team led by Dennis Reidy, a violence-prevention scholar at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, refers to this as “discrepancy stress,” and defines it as “a form of distress arising from perceived failure to conform to socially prescribed masculine gender role norms.”

In the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the researchers present evidence of a link between this type of stress and interpersonal violence, even “independent of other masculinity related variables.”

Along with three colleagues from the University of Georgia, Reidy conducted a study of 600 heterosexual American men who were recruited online. Along with basic demographic information, study participants responded to a series of statements revealing how they view their own masculinity.

On a one-to-seven scale, they expressed their level of agreement or disagreement with such statements as “I am less masculine than the average guy,” “I worry that people judge me because I’m not like the typical man,” and “I wish I was more manly.”

In addition, they noted the extent to which they endorse traditional gender roles, and the “degree of conflict” they encounter when such roles are challenged. Finally, they reported the extent to which they have engaged in “psychological, physical, or sexually violent behavior” with their current partner, most recent partner, or past partners.

The key result: Men who felt stress over their perceived inadequate level of masculinity were more likely to have admitted abusing their partners, even after a variety of other factors were taken into consideration.

“Men who experience stress related to perceiving themselves as being less masculine than the typical man—or believing that they are perceived as such by others—may be more likely to interpret ambiguous interactions as challenges to their masculinity,” Reidy and his colleagues write.

“Thus, it would be reasonable to expect that these men would be more likely to respond in a manner intended to demonstrate and, perhaps, bolster their masculine status.”

Acts of physical violence, they chillingly add, are “common methods of demonstrating masculinity.”

The researchers found that men who did not fit into traditional masculine roles but felt comfortable about that were not, on average, more likely to abuse their partners. Rather, violent behavior was specifically linked to the “experience of distress” over one’s perceived lack of masculinity.

The researchers add several cautionary notes to their study. They concede that self-reports of interpersonal violence may not be entirely accurate, as some men surely underreported how often they engage in such activity. In addition, their study does not address women-on-men violence or violence among same-sex couples.

Finally, the correlation they found is not proof of causation. It’s conceivable (although not likely) that committing acts of violence against women led them to doubt their masculinity, rather than the other way around.

These caveats aside, their study provides new insights into the roots of male-on-female violence, and may point toward ways of preventing it. Such efforts “should focus on the role of masculine socialization, acceptance of gender norms, and how they may engender distress in adolescents and adult men,” the researchers write.

“Intervening at an early age to prevent violence in teen dating relationships may avert a series of consequences across the lifespan,” they conclude, “including the perpetration of interpersonal violence in future adult relationships.”


~ Staff writer Tom Jacobs is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years experience at daily newspapers. He has served as a staff writer for The Los Angeles Daily News and the Santa Barbara News-Press. His work has also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Ventura County Star.

More From Tom Jacobs

• Cynics Are at a Higher Risk of Developing Dementia
• Books in the Home Are Strongly Linked to Academic Achievement
• The Elusive Link Between Poverty and Obesity

New research using a murine model (mice) suggests that a sudden decrease in testosterone levels in men can create Parkinson's Disease symptoms in men. In the study, mice that were castrated experienced dramatic increases in brain levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and nitric oxide. Too much nitric oxide (which are generated by the iNOS) kills neurons in the brain. The researchers note, "Interestingly, castration does not cause Parkinson's like symptoms in male mice deficient in iNOS gene, indicating that loss of testosterone causes symptoms via increased nitric oxide production."

Further, "We found that the supplementation of testosterone in the form of 5-alpha dihydrotestosterone (DHT) pellets reverses Parkinson's pathology in male mice."

Currently, it's not clear if the sudden decrease in testosterone has the same effect in human males. But further research is planned.

If this result can be replicated in humans, there are serious implications for male health. Testosterone levels are clearly linked to many disease processes. In most males, testosterone levels reach their peak from late teens to late 20s. Here is a sample distribution from the study cited below.

Simon D. Nahoul K. Chades MA. (1996). Sex hormones, ageing, ethnicity and insulin sensitivity in men: An overview of the Telecom study. In: Androgens and the ageing male.  Eds. Oddens B. Vermeulen A. Parthenon Publishing. New York.

          Testosterone levels measured in ng/dl

Age	Subjects	Mean	Standard Deviation	Median
< 25	125	692	158	697
25-29	354	669	206	637
30-34	330	621	194	597
35-39	212	597	189	567
40-44	148	597	198	597
45-49	154	546	163	527
50-54	164	544	187	518
55-59	155	552	174	547

However, testosterone levels may fall drastically due to chronic stress or highly stressful life events (death, divorce, job less, and so on). Other factors for low testosterone can be environmental toxins (xenoestrogens, for example), inflammation, free radicals (causing mitochondrial damage), dietary choices (soy extracts [genistein, daidzein], black licorice extract [a sweetener], alcohol), and obesity (increases estrogen levels and causes inflammation) This list could go on an on.

Finally, there is one other major concern here. One half of all men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes (and the other half would if they lived long enough). One of the frontline treatments, despite a lot of evidence that the health risks for those who survive far outweigh the extra few months a man might get if his cancer is aggressive and terminal, is androgen depletion therapy (ADT). Never let a doctor do this to you. Aggressive (i.e., deadly) forms of prostate cancer are NOT androgen-dependent - they are estrogen dependent.

ADT has been linked to muscle loss, weight gain, gynecomastia, diabetes, impotence, depression, bone loss, and a series of other issues. According to this new study, we may be able to add Parkinson's Disease to that list.

Sudden Decline in Testosterone May Cause Parkinson's Disease Symptoms in Men

July 26, 2013 — The results of a new study by neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center show that a sudden decrease of testosterone, the male sex hormone, may cause Parkinson's like symptoms in male mice. The findings were recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

One of the major roadblocks for discovering drugs against Parkinson's disease is the unavailability of a reliable animal model for this disease.

"While scientists use different toxins and a number of complex genetic approaches to model Parkinson's disease in mice, we have found that the sudden drop in the levels of testosterone following castration is sufficient to cause persistent Parkinson's like pathology and symptoms in male mice," said Dr. Kalipada Pahan, lead author of the study and the Floyd A. Davis endowed professor of neurology at Rush. "We found that the supplementation of testosterone in the form of 5-alpha dihydrotestosterone (DHT) pellets reverses Parkinson's pathology in male mice."

"In men, testosterone levels are intimately coupled to many disease processes," said Pahan. Typically, in healthy males, testosterone level is the maximum in the mid-30s, which then drop about one percent each year. However, testosterone levels may dip drastically due to stress or sudden turn of other life events, which may make somebody more vulnerable to Parkinson's disease.

"Therefore, preservation of testosterone in males may be an important step to become resistant to Parkinson's disease," said Pahan.

Understanding how the disease works is important to developing effective drugs that protect the brain and stop the progression of Parkinson's disease. Nitric oxide is an important molecule for our brain and the body.

"However, when nitric oxide is produced within the brain in excess by a protein called inducible nitric oxide synthase, neurons start dying," said Pahan.

"This study has become more fascinating than we thought," said Pahan. "After castration, levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and nitric oxide go up in the brain dramatically. Interestingly, castration does not cause Parkinson's like symptoms in male mice deficient in iNOS gene, indicating that loss of testosterone causes symptoms via increased nitric oxide production."

"Further research must be conducted to see how we could potentially target testosterone levels in human males in order to find a viable treatment," said Pahan.

Other researchers at Rush involved in this study were Saurabh Khasnavis, PhD, student, Anamitra Ghosh, PhD, student, and Avik Roy, PhD, research assistant professor.

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health that received the highest score for its scientific merit in the particular cycle it was reviewed.

Parkinson's is a slowly progressive disease that affects a small area of cells within the mid-brain known as the substantia nigra. Gradual degeneration of these cells causes a reduction in a vital chemical neurotransmitter, dopamine. The decrease in dopamine results in one or more of the classic signs of Parkinson's disease that includes resting tremor on one side of the body; generalized slowness of movement; stiffness of limbs and gait or balance problems. The cause of the disease is unknown. Both environmental and genetic causes of the disease have been postulated.

Parkinson's disease affects about 1.2 million patients in the United States and Canada. Although 15 percent of patients are diagnosed before age 50, it is generally considered a disease that targets older adults, affecting one of every 100 persons over the age of 60. This disease appears to be slightly more common in men than women.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Rush University Medical Center.

Journal Reference:

S. Khasnavis, A. Ghosh, A. Roy, K. Pahan. (2013, Jun 6). Castration Induces Parkinson Disease Pathologies in Young Male Mice via Inducible Nitric-oxide Synthase. Journal of Biological Chemistry; 288 (29): 20843-20855. DOI:10.1074/jbc.M112.443556

Full Title and Abstract:

Castration Induces Parkinson Disease Pathologies in Young Male Mice via Inducible Nitric-oxide Synthase

Saurabh Khasnavis, Anamitra Ghosh, Avik Roy, and Kalipada Pahan

Capsule

• Background: Developing a simple irreversible animal model to study nigrostriatal pathologies is important for Parkinson disease (PD).
• Results: Castration induces glial activation and death of dopaminergic neurons in wild type, but not iNOS−/−, young male mice.
• Conclusion: Castration induces nigrostriatal pathologies via iNOS.
• Significance: Castrated male mice may be used as a simple, toxin-free, nontransgenic, and irreversible animal model for PD.

Abstract

Although Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, available animal models do not exhibit irreversible neurodegeneration, and this is a major obstacle in finding out an effective drug against this disease. Here we delineate a new irreversible model to study PD pathogenesis. The model is based on simple castration of young male mice. Levels of inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS), glial markers (glial fibrillary acidic protein and CD11b), and α-synuclein were higher in nigra of castrated male mice than normal male mice. On the other hand, after castration, the level of glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) markedly decreased in the nigra of male mice. Accordingly, castration also induced the loss of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons in the nigra and decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase-positive fibers and neurotransmitters in the striatum. Reversal of nigrostriatal pathologies in castrated male mice by subcutaneous implantation of 5α-dihydrotestosterone pellets validates an important role of male sex hormone in castration-induced nigrostriatal pathology. Interestingly, castration was unable to cause glial activation, decrease nigral GDNF, augment the death of nigral dopaminergic neurons, induce the loss of striatal fibers, and impair neurotransmitters in iNOS−/− male mice. Furthermore, we demonstrate that iNOS-derived NO is responsible for decreased expression of GDNF in activated astrocytes. Together, our results suggest that castration induces nigrostriatal pathologies via iNOS-mediated decrease in GDNF. These results are important because castrated young male mice may be used as a simple, toxin-free, and nontransgenic animal model to study PD-related nigrostriatal pathologies, paving the way for easy drug screening against PD.

Marc Tracy - Here Come the Daddy Wars

This article originally appeared at The New Republic just before Father's Day (obviously I am a little bit behind in my posting), but the main points are still highly relevant. Men are going to face some tough decisions (some already are) and there are going to be some intense societal struggles in determining how men should be fathers and how much they will be allowed to be fathers.

I don't see there being any time soon where men are given equal post-natal time off from work (paid or unpaid, but with job and position security) to that of women - hell we don't even offer women much on average. It's not likely we will be anywhere near France's (22 paid days off, 318 total days off), Spain's (18 paid, 312 total), Germany's (47 paid, 170 total), Sweden's (47 paid, 163 total), or Norway's (44 paid, 150 total) position on parenting in my lifetime . . . or yours.

For the record, the U.S. offers 0 paid days and 24 total days off for maternity/family leave (these are days given by law, and all stats are from 2008).

Here Come the Daddy Wars

June 14, 2013
BY MARC TRACY

The average American spends $144 celebrating Mother’s Day, while for Father’s Day, the figure is $82. And that Father’s Day was inspired by Mother’s Day rather than vice versa is probably the least surprising fact you will read today. Mainly, Mother’s Day’s relative prominence is a vestige—and, to a lesser extent, a reflection—of society’s view that women are primarily mothers whereas men are fathers but also other things. This view not only gives women whose ambitions extend beyond the household a bum deal—for reasons I hope I don’t have to elucidate!—but it also fails men who might like to be more prominent as fathers and caregivers than societal norms currently encourage.

Women have fabricated a way of talking about the conflict between women who hope to find most of their self-fulfillment in the home and those for whom being a homemaker and child-rearer is not enough—and not only that, but believe it should not be enough for most women. This is the enlightened, productive side of what are commonly called the Mommy Wars. My question, as Father’s Day approaches, is: Where are the Daddy Wars?

Every day I see smart, career-ambitious women having an intelligent, heated conversation, informed by personal experience and strewn with first principles, about what a woman’s proper roles are, and what society, men, and other women could do to realize a better world. I don’t feel as though I’ve been kept out. But I do think men have been altogether too shy about joining this conversation or, perhaps, starting their own.

However, in the past few weeks, there have been a bevy of articles and studies that all point to this news: At long last, the Daddy Wars are coming.

The trends are both economic and sociological. Economically, as writers like Hanna Rosin have amply documented, women are finally gaining some level of equality with men—not at the very top, but at least in the middle. A new Pew report found that four in ten households with children have a woman as the prime or sole breadwinner, up from one in ten 50 years ago. Partly this is a function of single mothers, but in more than five million of such households, the mother is married yet simply makes more than the husband—and in such marriages, median income is higher. A Third Way study noted that employment trends are better for women than for men.

Esquire recently published an essay by Richard Dorment on the work-life balance that men face. It was fashioned as a response to Anne-Marie Slaughter’s “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” Atlantic feature (which made mention of how men face similar quandaries) and unfortunately was riddled with condescension for the same people—chiefly, feminists—who should be his allies. (Salon’s Irin Carmon did a good job pointing out this curious dynamic.) Still it captured, I think, the feelings of many men, fathers and not, who were brought up to think in terms of career and providing for their families financially, with actual work at home getting short shrift.

Most men stress over the next step in their professions, with the attitude that if they happen to fall in love and settle down, well, that’s great, too. But recently, in many cases inspired by the women in our lives and the conversation they are having among themselves, we have begun to question whether our most basic priorities aren’t out of whack, and to wonder whether, for reasons both social and surprisingly biological, we shouldn’t be as “ambitious” to have children as we are to land the next great job. Plus, having had children, many of us hope to play a more active role in their upbringing than has typically been expected of fathers. Many of us were lucky to have mothers who, whatever other ambitions and accomplishments they had, clearly took great joy in raising us; some of us were even lucky enough to have similar fathers. Do we want it “all”? Who knows (or cares). But we want that.

In a smart response on New York’s The Cut blog, Kurt Soller noted that men will probably have to take their cues from ladyblogs and the like as they navigate this issue, and offered several smart thoughts, including the observation that when men mentor other men, the subject matter is almost exclusively confined to the professional and romantic, not the domestic. (He also noted that as a late-twenty-something he should be as fretful as many of his same-aged female friends are about the looming having-kids prospect, which is true, if also—gulp—terrifying.) Yet even Soller seemed somewhat uncomfortable raising this topic: “As ridiculous as this seems,” he wrote, “the Esquire article had me realizing that a lot of the anxiety surrounding ‘leaning in’ or ‘having it all’ does feel relevant to me as a man.”

The next step, therefore, is to make this not feel at all ridiculous. Because it isn’t. The next step is to make a magazine devoted to artisinal Brooklyn fatherdom more than a quaint Talk of the Town subject. It is to encourage, socially and even legally, paternity leave, which a large share of men don’t take, as well as respect at the office for caregiving fathers, which according to two new studies such fathers currently do not generally enjoy. In the future, when a man voluntarily gives up great responsibility to “spend more time with my family,” I do not want the notion that this could be a euphemism to even occur to me.

In short, it’s going to be the Daddy Wars. (Want that url? Don’t bother; my friend and I have been cybersquatting at daddywars.tumblr.com for weeks.) The Mommy Wars consist of people—primarily other women—convincing women that it is in society’s interest, their children’s interests, other women’s interests, and their own interests for them to be more than stay-at-home moms. The Daddy Wars cannot be the exact obverse, since the playing field is already asymmetrical (for generations, the default for men was to find some balance between work and home, whereas the default for women was home). But they will be something like that.

Like the Mommy Wars, the Daddy Wars are going to require, as Carmon put it, “a negotiation between what’s possible, what they’ve been taught to expect is normal, and what they might really want.” Like the Mommy Wars, they are going to require walking a fine line between the ideology they forthrightly advocate—men should be home more—and respect for individual choice, of the “I choose my choice!” variety, accounting for not only the choices of the men themselves but also of their childrearing partners. (Yes, eventually, the Mommy Wars and the Daddy Wars will likely have to become one big Parents Wars, but first the right side will have to win the Daddy Wars.) Let’s see if we can’t get a generation of American men to think more of themselves as “Dad” or “Dad-to-Be.” That would be a good start.

Men Are More Likely to Cooperate in Difficult Circumstances

When men are in stressful and difficult circumstances, they are much more likely to work together and cooperate. The stereotype, er, traditional view, is that men respond to stress or threat with "fight or flight” (aggression or escape), whereas women are more prone to “tend and befriend” (help others). New research, however, overturns this stereotype . . . finally.

Anyone who has served in combat or has seen a documentary like Restrepo knows that men under extreme duress not only bond and cooperate, but willingly give their lives for each other.

When Stress Leads to Male Bonding and Compassion

New evidence that men are more likely to cooperate in difficult circumstances

Published on February 19, 2013 by Emma M. Seppala, Ph.D. in Feeling It

Ever feel that stress makes you more cranky, hot-headed or irritable? For men in particular, we think of stress as generating testosterone-fueled aggression – thus instances of road rage, or the need to “blow off steam” after work with a trip to the gym or a bar. On the other hand, in circumstances of extreme trauma such as the Sandy Hook incident or during natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, we hear moving accounts of people going out of their way to help others. The tsunami in Asia a couple of years ago led to a huge influx of financial support to help afflicted areas. Many who lived in New York City during 9/11 remember that, for a few days afterward, the boundaries and class divisions between people dissolved: people greeted each other on the street and were more considerate, sensitive to each other, and gentle than normal.

The classic view is that, under stress, men respond with "fight or flight,” i.e. they become aggressive or leave the scene, whereas women are more prone to “tend and befriend,” as has been shown in research by Shelley Taylor. A new study by Markus Heinrichs and Bernadette von Dawans at the University of Freiburg, Germany, however, suggests that acute stress may actually lead to greater cooperative, social, and friendly behavior, even in men. This more positive and social response could help explain the human connection that happens during times of crises, a connection that may be responsible, at least in part, for our collective survival as a species.

In Heinrichs’ and Dawans’ study, male participants were assigned to either an experimental group, with a stress procedure (a public speaking exercise followed by a complicated mental arithmetics), or a control group with no stress. They all were then asked to play an economics game involving potential financial gain based on the choices they make. In this game, they could choose to cooperate with others and trust them or not. The researchers found that, rather than becoming more aggressive after stress, men in the stress group actually became more trusting of others, displayed more trustworthy behavior themselves, and were more likely to cooperate and share profits. The researchers also found that these results were not due to weakened judgment in the stress group: the stress group did not differ from the control groups in their ability to make decisions or their willingness to sanction another participant who behaved unfairly.

One reason why stress may lead to cooperative behavior is our profound need for social connection. Human beings are fundamentally social animals and it is the protective nature of our social relationships that has allowed our species to thrive. Decades of research shows that social connection is a fundamental human need linked to both psychological and and physical health including a stronger immune system, faster recovery from disease and even longevity.

Social connection may be particularly important under stress because stress naturally leads to a sense of vulnerability and loss of control. A study by Benjamin Converse and colleagues at the University of Virginia found that feeling out of control (through a reminder of one’s mortality) leads to greater generosity and helpfulness while research at Stanford University by Aneeta Rattan and Krishna Savani showed that the opposite is true when we are primed with feelings of self-determination and control. Think back to a time when you felt out of control, for example during a romantic break-up, when you had an empty bank account, or lost a job. Chances are your feeling of vulnerability and feelings of lack of control may have made you seek the comfort of others in some way. Brene Brown, Professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and expert in the field of social connection, explains that vulnerability is a core ingredient of social bonding (for more on vulnerability, see this post).

War is one of the greatest stresses anyone could ever encounter yet it also often leads to deep human friendships and incredible acts of heroism and sacrifice for one other. In my research with returning veterans, I have often heard them speak of the tight bond that occurs between service members on the battlefield — one of the most stressful situations that exists. Countless soldiers have perished running into a line of fire to save an injured brother-in-arms. Some believe that it these experiences of profound human bonding that, despite the acute anguishes of war, makes some veterans long to return to war.

If stress leads to bonding, why then do we sometimes experience stress as making us cranky? The cause may be explained by a difference between acute and chronic stress.We know from research by Robert Sapolsky that acute stress prepares the body for resistance (physiological readiness, increased immune response, and heightened awareness) but that chronic stress slowly beats down the body. It may be that “acute” stress, i.e. a one-time stressful experience may lead to social bonding, as shown in the study, but that “chronic” stress, i.e. repeated exposure to stress over a long period, might wear us out. More research is needed to thoroughly examine the impact of chronic stress on social behavior.

Acute stress may help remind us of a fundamental truth: our common humanity. Understanding our shared vulnerability — life makes no promises — may be frightening, but it can inspire kindness, connection, and desire to stand together and support each other. Acute stress, as unpleasant as it may be, may also be an opportunity to experience the most beautiful aspects of life: social connection and love.

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For more on the science of happiness, health and social connection: www.emmaseppala.com.

Follow Emma on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emmaseppala
Subscribe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emma.seppala

Photo Credit: DavidMixner.com

[a version of this article was originally published in Scientific American Mind]

Shrink Rap Radio #322 – Mastering Resilience with Dennis Charney MD

On this week's Shrink Rap Radio, Dr. David Van Nuys interviews Dr. Dennis Charney, a specialist in the psychobiological mechanisms of human resilience to stress. His most recent book is Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges.

Resilience is a special issue for men, we tend to be less resilient than our female peers. Overall, more males are conceived, fewer males are born (but still slightly more than females), and by age 45 or 50, females are more plentiful. In the U.S., there are five million more women than men in the 65 and older age group.

A little more on male fragility:

Boys in the U.S. have a 29 percent higher prenatal death rate² and are 20 percent more vulnerable to infant mortality up to age one.³   Boys tend to be more at risk than girls of being born with birth defects, perhaps because boys tend to develop at a slower pace, leaving more time for potential problems to arise.⁴ 

As of 2005, the average life expectancy in the U.S. is 80.4 for women and 75.2 for men.  That means men, on average, die 5.2 years earlier than women.⁵.  This phenomenon is world-wide.  Women outlive men almost everywhere in the world.

The article goes on to list a variety of factors, some biological (chromosomes, hormones, immune system, iron overload, and natural selection), as well as several socio-cultural factors (cultural conditioning, social standing).

One of the cultural conditioning factors is what we might call "traditional masculinity."

Differences in what is expected of men and women contribute to variations in mortality. Certain behaviors that are discouraged in women are condoned or even rewarded in men.  Men's higher rates of cigarette smoking, heavy drinking, gun use, and risk taking in recreation and driving are partially responsible for their higher death rate.¹⁰   Also,men tend to work in more dangerous settings than women and account for 90 percent of on-the-job fatalities.¹¹   Throughout life,men are conditioned to hide feelings of sadness or pain and not to reach out for help.  They are less likely to seek medical attention, less likely to seek psychological treatment and more likely to commit suicide.  Men take their own lives at nearly four times the rate of females and represent 79.4% of all U.S. suicides.¹²

Men have a series of biological hurdles to get over, but there is still a lot we can do to improve our resilience.

#322 – Mastering Resilience with Dennis Charney MD

A psychology podcast by David Van Nuys, Ph.D.

copyright 2012: David Van Nuys, Ph.D.

Dennis S. Charney, MD is Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Charney is a world expert in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. He has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of neural circuits and neurochemistry related to human anxiety, fear, mood as well AS THE discovery of new treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. He later expanded this area into pioneering research related to the psychobiological mechanisms of human resilience to stress.

Early in his career, Dr. Charney led a team that determined that the biology of human anxiety disorders were characterized by excessive noradrenergic activity and dysfunction in specific neural circuits including the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. His work in depression led to new hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of antidepressant drugs and discovery of new and novel therapies for treatment resistant depression including Lithium and Ketamine, which works within hours.

After decades of work on the biology of anxiety, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Dr. Charney and colleagues have turned their attention toward investigating the psychobiological mechanisms of human resilience to stress. They have found specific hormones and peptides which contribute to resilience and identified a prescription for enhancing human resilience.

A prolific author, Dr. Charney has written more than 700 publications, including groundbreaking scientific papers, chapters, and books. Dr. Charney’s most recent book is Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges.
___

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• Jungian Psychotherapy Part 1 (6 CEUs)
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• Jungian Psychotherapy Part 3 (7 CEUs)
• Jungian Psychotherapy Part 4 (6 CEUs)
• Jungian Psychotherapy Package of the Four Above (26 CEUs)
• Wisdom of The Dream (4 CEUs)
• Positive Psychology (6 CEUs)
• Pros and Cons of Positive Psychology (5 CEUs)
• CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (32 CEUs)
• Body-Mind: Goodbye to Dualism (6 CEUs)
• Meditation & Psychotherapy (8 CEUs)
• Get our iPhone/Android app!Get 25% discount on all lectures at The JungPlatform using our discount code: DRDAVE

 

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Posted on October 19, 2012

Therese J. Borchard - 12 Depression Busters for Men

This article comes from Psych Central's World of Psychology blog, written by Therese J. Borchard. In general, this is all good advice, even if some of the reasoning is flawed - the one that bothers me the most is the false belief that women speak three times as many words per day as men. 

Louann Brizendine has perpetuated the myth in her book, The Female Brain. But when researchers actually performed the experiment, it turned out to be completely wrong (as reported in July 6, 2007, in Scientific American). 

In most of the samples, the average number of words spoken by men and women were about the same. Men showed a slightly wider variability in words uttered, and boasted both the most economical speaker (roughly 500 words daily) and the most verbose yapping at a whopping 47,000 words a day. But in the end, the sexes came out just about even in the daily averages: women at 16,215 words and men at 15,669. In terms of statistical significance, Pennebaker says, "It's not even remotely close to different." He does point out that women tend to jaw more about other people, whereas men are apt to hold forth on more concrete objects—so the stereotypes of ladies as gossips and guys engaging in car talk can live on.

Okay, now that I have cleared that up, I'll be able to sleep tonight. 

Oh, one other note, in that list of famous men with depression, add Jim Carey, who has been open about his struggles and about turning to spirituality to deal with it. That is one "depression buster" missing from the list below, and one that I think is important for a lot of people, a lot of men.

12 Depression Busters for Men

By Therese J. Borchard
Associate Editor

 

In the spring of 2006, the depression of two very successful men made newspaper headlines in Maryland.

Phil Merrill, a renowned publisher, entrepreneur and diplomat in the Washington area took his own life. Eleven days later Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan withdrew his candidacy for governor of Maryland because of his struggle with depression. For weeks, newspapers covered male depression, including the stories of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Archbishop Raymond Roussin, Mike Wallace, William Styron, Art Buchwald, and Robin Williams.

That was unusual. Because, in the majority of media stories and infomercials, depression is regarded as a feminine thing … a result of all of the hormonal shifts and baby-making stuff.

The reality? Six million men, or seven percent of American men, suffer from depression, and millions more suffer silently because they either don’t recognize the symptoms, which can vary from women’s, or they are too ashamed to get help for what they see as a woman’s disease. 

These 12 techniques were written for men to address the hidden desperation so many feel, and to expose the truth about mood disorders and gender.


1. Get a male perspective.
When I hit bottom after the birth of my second baby, I was lucky enough to see Brook Sheild’s beautiful face on “Oprah” describing how I felt. In her book, and in Kay Redfield Jamison’s “An Unquiet Mind” and Tracy Thompson’s “The Ghost in the House,” I found female companionship, as they articulated what was happening to me. That alone made me less scared.

There are some wonderful books tackling the male perspective of depression. Among them: “I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression” by Terrence Real, “Unmasking Male Depression” by Archibald Halt, and, of course, the classic, “Darkness Visible” by William Styron. 

There are also an array of blogs by men on the topic of depression and mental health. For example, check out “Storied Mind,” “Chipur.com,” “Knowledge Is Necessity,” “Lawyers with Depression,” “Midlife-Men.com,” “Finding Optimism,” and “A Splintered Mind.”

2. Identify the symptoms.
Part of what makes male depression so misunderstood is that a depressed guy doesn’t act the way a depressed lady does, and the feminine symptoms are the ones most often presented in pharmaceutical ads and in glossy brochures you pick up at your doctor’s office . For example, it is not uncommon for a man to complain to his primary care physician about sleep problems, headaches, fatigue and other unspecified pain, some or all of which may be related to untreated depression. 

In her Newsweek article, “Men & Depression,” Julie Scelfo writes, “Depressed women often weep and talk about feeling bad; depressed men are more likely to get into bar fights, scream at their wives, have affairs or become enraged by small inconveniences like lousy service at a restaurant.”

3. Limit the alcohol.
An interesting study by Yale University discovered that men and women respond to stress differently. According to lead scientist Tara Chaplin, women are much more likely to feel sad or anxious as a result of stress, whereas men turn to alcohol. “Men’s tendency to crave alcohol when upset may be a learned behavior or may be related to known gender differences in reward pathways in the brain,” she said. The tendency, however, puts men at more risk for alcohol-use disorders. And since alcohol is, itself, a depressive, you really don’t want a lot of it in your system. Trust me on this one.

4. Watch the stress.
You can’t drink away your worries, so what DO you do? I offer ten stress busters. But I imagine the most important way to manage stress for men is to work in a job and environment that isn’t … well … toxic. Unfortunately, the more impressive your title, the more stress brewing underneath your skin. Dr. Charles Nemeroff, a psychiatrist who treated both Tom Johnson (president of CNN during the 90s) and philanthropist J.B. Fuqua says stress is a major factor in male depression and a CEO’s (or any executive’s) higher stress level makes them more vulnerable to the illness. The pressure can become unbearable. Unfortunately, some men will have to choose between good mental health and the corner office.

5. Help another dude.
At age 46 Philip Burguieres was running a Fortune 500 company. Now he lends a hand to CEOs who are living lives of quiet desperation and have nowhere to turn. In an interview with PBS, Burguieres said, “I am open about my own experience, and I share my story with other CEOs in lecture settings several times a year [because] I have found that helping other people helps me, and keeps me healthier.” Art Buchwald, another very successful depressive, said in a “Psychology Today” interview some years back that talking about his depression helped him as much as the people he was talking to. It seems to me that the more misunderstood the illness, the greater the need to reach out and help each other.

6. Find an outlet.

A man cave may help a man retreat in order to do his own thing.

One of my male friends who is a tad depressed right now says all he needs to feel better is 18 holes of golf. I’m not sure that chasing the little white ball has the same therapeutic faculties as a high-impact hour of counseling, but I trust that he knows himself better than I know him. What I do know without a doubt is that men are much happier when they can retreat into a “man cave” or a safe corner of the world and do their thing. Some might need a little assistance finding that happy place. So keep trying on those pastimes until one fits and lets you take a deep breath.

7. Tend to the marriage.
Depression leads women into affairs and divorce. But I suspect there are even more casualties with men’s depression. In a poignant blog post, John A. discusses his longing to leave a good marriage as the “active” face of the illness. He writes, “We often focus on the passive symptoms, the inactivity, the isolation, sense of worthlessness, disruption of focused thought, lack of will to do anything.

But paradoxically the inner loss and need can drive depressed people to frenzied action to fill the great emptiness in the center of their lives. They may long to replace that inadequate self with an imagined new one that makes up for every loss.” Yet, by loving the partner beside you, even though it can feel counterintuitive and unnatural, you can protect yourself (to a certain extent) from the blows of depression and make yourself more resilient to future episodes.

8. Know the numbers.
Because men aren’t diagnosed with depression as often as women, we tend to downplay the wreckage this illness makes in their lives. Crying mothers makes for better footage on the evening news. So here’s a refresher on some sobering statistics you need to know:

• 80 percent of all suicides in the US are men; the male suicide rate at midlife is three times higher than women and for men over 65 seven times higher
• More than four times as many men as women die of suicide in the United States
• Even though women make more suicide attempts during their lives, men attempt suicide using methods that are generally more lethal than those used by women
• Suicide accounts for 1 in 100 deaths, and, as noted above, the majority of those are men
• The suicide rate among young men is increasing (not so among young women), and the majority of these men have not asked for help before their deaths.

9. Tune into the body.
According to the “Real Men, Real Depression” public education campaign of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately 12 percent of the patients seen by a primary care physician have major depression. Depression has been linked to heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes, which all affect men at higher rates and at earlier ages than women. Men with depression and heart disease are two or three times more likely to die than men who are not depressed. Moreover, because men’s depression symptoms often begin with fatigue, sleep problems, stomach aches, joint pain, headaches, or other pains, it is crucial for guys to tune into the body and to hear what it’s saying.

10. Exercise.
All I can say is “Run, Forrest, run!” This is especially true for moody men. How does a jog kill the pain? The technical answer is that all aerobic activity stimulates brain chemicals that foster the growth of nerve cells; exercise also affects neurotransmitters such as serotonin that influence mood and produces ANP, a stress-reducing hormone, which helps control the brain’s response to stress and anxiety. I realize the last thing you want to do when you’re depressed is hop on an exercise bike or lift weights. Getting a gym buddy who makes you accountable for your attendance might help, or, if you can afford it, hire a physical trainer to motivate you. Registering with a circuit-training program, or doing some other form of group exercise, is even better because you have the fellowship built in.

11. Start talking.
Women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman using up to 20,000 words a day, which is 13,000 more than a typical man uses. [NOTE: This is bullshit that has been disproved time and again - it comes from one source that cited no research - see the beginning of this post.] In her book, “The Female Brain,” Dr. Louann Brizendine explains that women devote more brain cells to talking than men [More bullshit], and that the chit chat triggers brain chemicals that assist with their emotions. So the more communication and jibber jab, the more sanity. Which is why depressed men need to learn the art of talking. Consider these words by Abe Lincoln: “The inclination to exchange thoughts with one another is probably an original impulse of our nature. If I be in pain I wish to let you know it, and to ask your sympathy and assistance; and my pleasurable emotions also, I wish to communicate to, and share with you.”

12. Become useful.
Being that the suicide rate has been shown to rise and fall with unemployment in a number of countries, I think it’s safe to say that losing a job can be a strong trigger for depression, especially in men. They are born with a need to be needed. Women, too. But that seems to be even more of a primitive trait in men. So, a huge depression buster is to become needed. A job is only one way to accomplish that. Contributing to society, or to a family, or both doesn’t necessarily have to come with a paycheck. Whatever gives you sense of purpose can bolster mental health and keep you more resilient.