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Men Get Depressed Too.
May 28, 2026
Broken Men Left Behind by the Saying "What's a Real Man Worrying About That For?"
South Korea raises 'enduring men.'
From a young age, there are sayings heard until ears get calloused:
"Why is a man crying?"
"Can't a real man even endure that much?"
"Once you complete military service, you'll snap back into reality."
Korean men learn how to swallow and endure emotions first,
instead of learning how to express them.
According to data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service,
domestic depression patients are breaking historic highs every year.
Statistics show that females are higher in number.
However, psychiatrists have been warning for a long time:
"Male depression is hidden under the surface like a massive iceberg."
This is because men do not say "I am depressed" when they are depressed.
Male Depression Comes as 'Anger and Addiction', Not 'Sadness'
When thinking of depression,
people usually picture crying or lying down helplessly.
However, male depression appears wearing a completely different mask.
Irritation without reason and explosive anger
Suddenly increased alcohol consumption or smoking
Immersion in gaming, stocks, or gambling continuing late into the night
Extreme fatigue and isolating oneself by crawling into bed
They themselves do not even know if this is depression.
They just whip themselves,
saying "Because work is tough these days," or "Because I'm originally lazy."
But the body is quite honest.
Even if the mind commands it to endure,
the body's system is already collapsing.
Physiological Warning: How Chronic Stress Changes the Male Body
Depression is not a cold of the mind.
It is a malfunction of the brain and hormone system.
When we receive extreme stress continuously,
the HPA Axis (Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis),
which leads to the brain's hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal gland, rings an emergency siren.
At this time, the stress hormone 'cortisol' is explosively secreted,
and this cortisol causes a fatal problem for men:
it stops the factory that makes male hormones (testosterone).
According to actual studies,
a decrease in testosterone is commonly observed in men suffering from depression.
Male hormones are not simply substances for 'muscles' or 'sexual function.'
They are the core fuel in the brain responsible for motivation, concentration, energy, and resilience.
When this fuel runs out, the following symptoms push in like dominoes:
Opening eyes in the morning is so heavy that it feels terrifying.
No motivation arises for favorite sports or hobbies.
Brain feels foggy, making it impossible to concentrate (Brain Fog).
Easily turning into 'glass mentality' at small criticisms or stress.
The Destructive Power of Just One Week of Sleep Deprivation
Many men in their 20s and 30s reduce sleep due to employment pressure,
overtime work, and anxiety about the future.
According to a famous study published in the medical journal JAMA (2011),
restricting the sleep of healthy young men to 5 hours for one week
caused testosterone levels to plummet by 10 to 15%.
This is a change that occurs when the body ages by more than
10 years due to natural aging.
The result of enduring while cutting back on sleep has returned as the destruction of the hormone system.
A problem arises here.
Male hormones fluctuate even within a day.
They are high in the morning and low in the evening.
They dance depending on sleep status and the previous day's stress.
Therefore, a single blood test number received
at a hospital being 'normal' does not mean the hormone rhythm of my body is normal.
Time to Read 'Continuous Signals of My Body' Rather Than 'A Single Test'
We live in an era where
we look at real-time blood sugar changes with Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM)
and monitor 24-hour blood pressure
and sleep with smartwatches.
Depression and the collapse of hormones are the same.
Before my body completely burns out and collapses,
the body is already sending numerous warning signals
through smartwatch data or daily senses.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) numbers continuously drop low (Collapse of autonomic nervous system balance)
Deep Sleep ratio rapidly decreases
Muscle pain after exercise does not recover even after several days
Future mental health management will not stop at simply going to a hospital and filling out a questionnaire.
It must move in the direction of comprehensively reading my daily accumulating sleep patterns,
autonomic nervous system responses (HRV), and change patterns in hormone rhythms.
Men Also Hurt, and That Is Not Something to Be Ashamed Of
The human body is not a machine.
If held out alone for a long time, it gets tired;
if unable to sleep, it gets sensitive;
and when stress reaches its peak, the hormone axis collapses.
This is a universal human physiology regardless of gender.
The real problem is not depression itself.
It is the culture of hiding until the end out of fear of the gaze saying
"Can't a real man even endure that?",
thereby missing the golden time.
Instead of saying "Shake it off like a man" to brothers, friends,
or colleagues around you, let's offer this single phrase:
"Are you sleeping well these days? How is your body?"
That small question can become the starting point that holds onto a man's world that was collapsing silently.