‘He shared with me his experience with stress – that was really helpful’: why men should face mental health issues head on and talk about them
- ‘Being able to be vulnerable shortens the distance between ourselves and everyone around us,’ a Men’s Health Week panel meeting on mental health hears
- With men three times as likely as women to die by suicide, business executives and experts describe the benefits of opening up about stress, anxiety, depression
Five years ago, Alex Bowen was in the middle of a perfect storm – things were not going well at work, he didn’t have a supportive line manager, he was away from family and he had a young child at home.
It all added up to a huge amount of stress, and he was facing his first real mental health challenge – although he didn’t recognise it as that at the time.
“I was changed as a person. I was being short-tempered. At home, I had a low tolerance, my patience was gone completely, and I felt I didn’t really care about my work. And I love work, I love my job. It was a very odd space to be in,” said Bowen, chief operating officer of PayMe, the Hong Kong mobile payment service of global bank HSBC, this week.
He was speaking at a panel meeting on Men’s Mental Health in the Workplace jointly organised by City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong and the American Chamber of Commerce to mark Men’s Health Week.
