In 2017, there were 2,862 suicides in Australia Of these, 75% (2,149) were men
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This makes suicide the 9th leading cause of death for men overall, just under colorectal cancer and above cancer of unknown origin
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Why are men more likely to commit suicide? This is a very difficult question to answer
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One argument is that male suicide is down to cultural factors that cause men to be depressed more often, and thus make them more likely to be suicidalpic.twitter.com/UkIBT02Xa6
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The 'Man Box' is one example of this theory - that men are poisoned by society's attitude to masculinity, which drives more of them to suicide https://jss.org.au/what-we-do/the-mens-project/the-man-box/ …
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But this brings us to a confusing point. If society is making men depressed, which makes them suicidal, we'd expect to see men ATTEMPT suicide at higher rates
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In fact, we see the exact opposite. In general, women attempt suicide 2-3x as often as menpic.twitter.com/hWhkM8VZsy
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This presents a conundrum. Far more men die from suicide, but they actually attempt less often We can see why when we look at means - how people choose to end their lives
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This table is now quite old, but gives you an idea of the problem Men are far more likely to choose lethal means than women, which makes their attempts more likely to be fatalpic.twitter.com/oveZjvGQZp
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In many ways, this brings us back to the cultural explanations. For any number of reasons, self-harm for men is more often lethal than it is for women
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It's likely partially because of cultural attitudes to masculinity, and partly because men are more likely to have access to some of these means
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The bottom line is that male suicide is a complex topic that will take time and effort, and cautious intervention, to help
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Effective suicide prevention for men must look both at good public health measures - limiting access to firearms, for one - broader cultural interventions, and focused services looking to break this cycle
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