Tuesday Check In: How's Everybody's Mental Health?

[u/MLModBot]

Good day, everyone and welcome to our weekly mental health check-in thread! Feel free to comment below with how you are doing, as well as any coping skills and self-care strategies others can try! For information on mental health resources and support, feel free to consult our resources wiki (also located in the sidebar!) (IMPORTANT NOTE RE: THE RESOURCES WIKI: As Reddit is a global community, we hope our list of resources are diverse enough to better serve our community. As such, if you live in a country and/or geographic region that is NOT listed/represented but know of a local resource you feel would be beneficial, then please don't hesitate to let us know!)

Remember, you are human, it's OK to not be OK. Life can be very difficult and there's no how-to guide for any of this. Try to be kind to yourself and remember that people need people. No one is a lone island and you need not struggle alone. Remember to practice self-care and alone time as well. You can't pour from an empty cup and your life is worth it.

Take a moment to check in with a loved one, friend, or acquaintance. Ask them how they're doing, ask them about their mental health. Keep in mind that while we may not all be mentally ill, we all have mental health.

If you find yourself in particular struggling to go on, please take a moment to read and reflect on this poem.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This mental health check-in thread is NOT a substitute for real-world professional help/support. MensLib is NOT a mental health support sub, and we are NOT professionals! This space solely exists to hold space for the community and help keep each other accountable.

[u/Oregon_Jones111]

I wish I was asexual. I feel like I’m hurting women I find attractive when I glance at them.

[u/DameyJames → u/Oregon_Jones111]

It helps a lot to be able to empathize with a woman’s mindset going about the world and proceeding while imagining how you might be perceived to someone who deals with casually disrespectful to threatening behavior from men in public and try to modify accordingly. Someone told me that men are starved for complimentary attention and affection while women are drowning in attention but mostly abrasive, shallow, and invasive attention.

Most women are some degree of apprehensive and cautious with male attention in public but there are situations and ways to approach women in a way that conveys respectful friendly interest. As long as you try to put out gentle, authentic, positive energy and don’t overstep her physical and social boundaries you’ll probably be met with friendliness or at least courtesy. But yeah it’s tricky. It’s all perpetuated by patterns of bad behavior by other men so it’s hard to figure out how to separate your impression from those types of guys to a stranger.

[u/Oregon_Jones111 → u/DameyJames]

I appreciate you’re trying to help, but empathizing with their mindset is why I feel this way in the first place.