Northampton researcher tackles male anxiety

Nearly 30% of men said they suffered from high levels of anxiety

A researcher whose own father attempted suicide has said she wants to help men enjoy better mental health.

Audrey Orage from the University of Northampton wants to get groups of young men talking so she can understand more about male anxiety.

Figures suggest a third of men suffer from high levels of anxiety.

Ms Orage said men suffer in silence because of social pressures and not having the language to talk about their feelings.

The senior lecturer in counselling said: "When I was very young, my father, who had experienced trauma, attempted suicide at a time when this was still a punishable crime."

Determined to do something about the problem, she became a mental health social worker and trained as a psychotherapist.

Audrey Orage said men like her father suffered in silence

She discovered that a lot of men turned to drugs as a way of coping with anxiety: "I spent time working in a specialist team with people who experienced their first episode of early onset psychosis.

"I had an all-male caseload and was surprised that many of these young men had turned to using cannabis to feel calmer."

Some men are turning to cannabis as a way of coping with anxiety

The problem is now affecting a large proportion of the male population.

According to figures from the Mental Health Foundation, in 2022-2023, 29.9% of males said they suffered from high levels of anxiety.

The next step for Ms Orage was working out whether there were any common threads among the men who suffered from anxiety.

She said: "What sticks in my mind is they all had similar stories linked to anxiety and [I] wanted to understand more about anxiety in young men, its effects on them, what they feel about it and how to tackle it."

Ms Orage will use her research for her Doctorate in Health and Social Care at the University of Northampton

Ms Orage is now setting up a series of online focus groups for young males to talk about their experiences.

An initial session is taking place in March on Zoom for men aged between 18 and 24.

She said: "In the not-so-distant past, men like my father suffered silently with mental health issues because of social pressures and not having the language to recognise the problem, let alone try to explain it.

"Although there has been progress in recent years, as a society, we need to keep peeling back the layers to arrive at better ways to ensure men enjoy better mental health."