(Bloomberg) -- US Senator John Fetterman’s announcement that he is seeking treatment for clinical depression wasn’t just unusual because of his high-profile job. It’s also far less common for men to seek help for mental-health issues.

Women are more likely than men to report having a mental illness and more likely to report receiving treatment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But statistics show more men are opening themselves up to care: In 2020, about 15% of men received mental-health treatment in the past 12 months, up from 13% the year prior. That still lags well behind the 26% of women who got care.

The Pennsylvania Democrat checked himself in to inpatient treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington this week on the recommendation of Congress’ attending physician. Fetterman is also recovering from a stroke, highlighting the fact that major illnesses can often precede depressive episodes.

“He is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” his office said in a statement. “While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks.”

Public figures facing mental illness

Almost one in five Americans lives with a mental illness, and about one in 10 lives with a major depressive illness, according to 2020 data from the National Institute of Mental Health.

“For celebrities and public figures who open themselves up and talk about this, it’s not without risk — they face the risk of some judgment or pushback,” said Schroeder Stribling, the chief executive officer of the non-profit group Mental Health America. “So we really applaud the senator for his openness. In this difficult moment he can also know he’s helping people.”

Openness from Fetterman and others about their mental health issues can help normalize therapy and reduce stigma, especially for men who may view seeking treatment as a sign of weakness. Olympian Michael Phelps talks about his depression in ads for Talkspace, an online therapy platform. The NBA’s Kevin Love has been open about his mental health, as has actor and entrepreneur Dwayne Johnson. The rapper Logic released a song whose title was the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Now, people seeking immediate help in times of crisis can call or text 988, a service that debuted in 2022.

What depression looks like in men

Men die by suicide at a rate that is four times higher than for women, and while experts note that a variety of factors contribute to those rates, the fact that men are less likely to receive mental health treatment results in fewer opportunities for intervention. The symptoms of depression in men are often different than in women, which may make it harder for them and their loved ones to recognize it, Stribling said.

“We’ve got to be really specific in our messages to men that, ‘Hey, it might look or feel like this to you,’” Stribling said. “You might just feel irritable and aggressive —  a lot that could be depression.”

There are other barriers to mental-health treatment. Men of color, for example, may be daunted in finding a therapist who can relate to their experiences or the way stress shows up in their lives. Therapy can also be prohibitively expensive for some people.

Still, the shared experiences of the pandemic and its affect on public mental health has played a positive role in reducing stigma around discussing issues like depression, Stribling said. 

“We kind of punched through part of the stigma wall in a way that we’re not going to retreat from,” Stribling said. “What we did see was an acknowledgement by many public figures about their mental health.”

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