I'm totally against what companies are calling "AI", but I understand that many men still have a negative feel on therapy inherited from society, their family, their friends, and the people around them. Now add that with the fact that therapy sessions cost a kidney, I don't blame them. Even mental health has to be monetized in capitalism, and the capitalists (more specifically liberals) are still wondering why suicide rate is so high, I wonder

I'm a therapist who works almost exclusively with men. Here one pattern I've seen often:

• Man is conditioned from a young age not to identify, process or express his feelings
• Man doesn't share his feelings with anyone - friends, family, partners - for years
• Man sees woman as safe, caring and validating
• Man confides in woman only and continues not sharing feelings with others
• Woman becomes overwhelmed, resentful, dismissive
• Man gets the message that he never should have opened up in the first place

It can be true both that men need to open up more and should not treat their partners as therapists. We all need support systems because no one person can always be available to give us everything we need. It's not wrong to confide in a partner, but if that partner is the only confidant it's precarious for both. And I want to emphasize this is not the fault of a man, or men as a community. This is the result of generations of conditioning from both men and women, and both men and women play a part in the solution. I also want to recognize that many of us don't have a network of people we could open up to even if we wanted to, and many more can't afford therapy.

If anyone reading this can afford therapy, I highly recommend it. It's a place to undo some of that conditioning, to sit with someone who's committed to listening, caring, and not judging.

Probably the closest space any guy could get is AA or NA meetings.

what do these abbreviations stand for?

Ironically, i am feeling attacked right now..

You should blame them because the AI is not a solution to their problems, it will only create more problems and worsen their current ones.

What the fuck? Can you read?

Coping Skills are not gender specific. What a dope.

Ok, so the solution to men feeling too scared to open up about their mental health enough to rely on something as unreliable as ChatGPT is for you to victim blame them?

This comment section is nuts.

Men #1 issue is lack of empathy, TOWARDS women. Not each other.

There's your solution.

You reply to an anecdote (well really more of a logical argument but w/e) with an anecdote.

Astounding level of intellectual discussion going on here.

Is it really that ridiculous? Biologically seen, men's properties are mostly due to genetic selection by women over thousands of years, if they are conscious about it or not. Men that are more attractive to women are preferred partners, and the selection pressure is mostly on men, since women have a much higher biological cost in pregnancy, therefore they are much more "picky". That is pretty proven science, and this pressure is also found in culture: men have the attributes that women want them to have to give them an advantage.

It would only take 2-3 generations of women AND men doing child care to fix those issues by reinforcing openness and acceptance, but that takes education, esp in the human sciences, and education for the masses in the US has been dismantled long ago even before the current razing.

You just blamed all his so-called issues on him being a man. The question is can you read your own comment or do you just type out sentences that you yourself don't understand?

man is conditioned from a young age not to show feelings

I feel like you skipped over this part way too quickly. Myself and other men have been hearing things like "it's not manly to cry", "whining isn't going to do anything for you", "being weak is girly", and countless other things for my entire memorable life

And it's not just men telling me this. It's men, women, adults, my classmates, teachers and mentors.

It's not a good thing. And it's changing now, which is so good. But man hearing that from your earliest memories makes it really set in.

You seem to lack empathy.

Well those sound like people who aren't good to open up to.

I do sympathize though, I pretended to be a guy for several decades, and my wife put exactly the same kind of duality on me that men put on women.

I was expected to be sympathetic and nurturing in some contexts and aggressive, jealous, and demanding in others, and I was just supposed to know when to switch.

And there was an amount of vulnerability I was able to display, but beyond that I'd get told to suck it up.

I think somebody needs to come up with an ad campaign that's Therapy For Men. Big sweaty hairy guys with thick beards looking after each other's mental health like BROs. It worked to get men to use soap.

(Seriously, I think counseling is too female-coded for a lot of men to be comfortable with it unless they're fucking the person, or they start to want to fuck the person because they're unused to talking about things).

If some men thought the solution to loneliness was fucking a toaster I'd think less of them too, yeah. At least find a tool that suits the purpose, talking to the AI is just self harm.

Please quote me. I said he's being sexist which he is.

Sure buddy keep hating women or whatever the point of your comment was.

so are we going to help them, or are we going to wash our hands of them and let the problem fester and grow?

incels need positive reinforcement to loop them out of their cognitive loop. not shame and harassment that further entrenches it.

the easiest way to get someone who is hateful about some group or thing... is to introduce them to it in a positive manner.

“The way I do things is how everyone should do things, because what works for me will unquestionably work for everyone else.” – You

You really can't read, can you? My comment is simple enough it would take a cock-up of epic proportions to not get my point.