Breaking down the barriers. UON academic tackles the taboo around male anxiety

New research led by University of Northampton seeks to understand what is a ‘no go’ subject for many men – anxiety.

Anxiety is defined as a type of fear usually associated with the thought of a threat or something going wrong in the future, but it can also arise from something happening right now.

According to figures from the Mental Health Foundation, in 2022-2023, 29.9% of males reported suffering from high levels of anxiety.

Senior Lecturer in Counselling Audrey Orage is looking for young men to join focus groups to help her gain valuable insight for research.

Audrey talks about the personal experiences which led her to focus on this area: “I’ve been interested in exploring men’s mental health for some time. When I was very young, my father, who had experienced trauma, attempted suicide at a time when this was still a punishable crime.

“As an adult, I became a mental health social worker – alongside training as a psychotherapist.  Whilst working as a social worker, I spent time working in a specialist team with people who experienced their first episode of early onset psychosis. In this role, I had an all-male caseload and was surprised that many of these young men had turned to using cannabis to feel calmer.

“What sticks in my mind is they all had similar stories linked to anxiety. As a therapist, I started to notice similar patterns in men who came to therapy and wanted to understand more about anxiety in young men, its effects on them, what they feel about it and how to tackle it.”

Audrey’s research will involve running a series of online focus groups for young males to talk about their experiences.

Audrey needs males between the ages of 18 and 24, from all backgrounds and locations in the UK, to take part in an initial and informal and unrecorded information session where she will outline the details of the focus groups.

This will take place on Zoom on Thursday, 7 March, from 19:00-19:30, and you can join the session on the day using this link*.

Audrey concludes: “In the not-so-distant past, men like my father suffered silently with mental health issues because of social pressures and not having the language to recognise the problem, let alone try to explain it. Although there has been progress in recent years, as a society, we need to keep peeling back the layers to arrive at better ways to ensure men enjoy better mental health.”

Audrey’s research is for her Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care, which is set to be completed in the early part of 2026. Her findings will be published later the same year.

Zoom meeting details are below. Please email Audrey if you have trouble logging in: audrey.orage@northampton.ac.uk

*Meeting ID: 737 1766 6319
Passcode: 0MX4xz