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Every June, Men’s Mental Health Month arrives with a quiet urgency. And every year, it feels like we’re still whispering about something we should be shouting from the rooftops.

Men are struggling. Globally, they are more than twice as likely to die by suicide than women. In the United States, men account for nearly 80% of all suicide deaths. Right here in Suffolk, the signs are just as troubling — and just as real.

The Western Tidewater Community Services Board, which serves Suffolk and surrounding areas, notes that more than four times as many men as women die by suicide every year. Yet nearly 40% of men say they’ve never spoken to anyone about their mental health. Many admit it would take suicidal thoughts just to reach out. That statistic should stop us cold.

It’s not just about suicide. Men suffer from depression, anxiety and substance abuse in large numbers, but often go undiagnosed or untreated. According to national health data, nearly 1 in 10 men experience depression or anxiety — but less than half seek treatment. In part, that’s because we’ve been conditioned not to. The message — “man up” — is still pervasive. Vulnerability is seen as weakness. Suffering in silence is mistaken for strength.

But silence is killing our fathers, brothers, sons and neighbors.

No system, hotline, or campaign can make a difference if men don’t feel safe speaking up.

The most dangerous lie men are told is that they have to figure it out alone. It’s on all of us — as friends, spouses, coworkers and neighbors — to dismantle that belief. Ask the men in your life how they’re doing, and really mean it. Normalize therapy. Share your own struggles. Make vulnerability visible.

Mental health is a human issue. And in our community, it’s time to treat men’s mental well-being with the same urgency and compassion we would offer anyone else in pain.

Because for too long, we’ve been burying our men — not just in the ground, but beneath layers of stigma, silence and shame.

Let’s stop whispering. Let’s start talking.