The Hidden Risk for Men: 8 Coping Strategies That Shape Health and Life Outcomes

Author: Dr Joe Gaunt, Health Psychologist 

A significant yet often overlooked risk to men’s health is not stress itself, it is how men cope with it.

Many men feel a deep responsibility to be “the strong one.” They absorb pressure, protect others from stress, and carry burdens quietly. While this often comes from a place of leadership and care, there remains a persistent stigma around men seeking support for emotional or psychological strain.

Research shows that women, on average, are more likely to seek professional help for mental and physical health concerns. Help-seeking behaviour is associated with earlier intervention, healthier coping patterns, and better long-term outcomes (Addis & Mahalik, 2003).

The Health Paradox

Men are statistically more likely to engage in high-risk behaviours, including excessive alcohol use, substance misuse, gambling and compulsive pornography consumption, as coping mechanisms (Courtenay, 2000). These are often described as negative coping strategies.

This contributes to what is sometimes called the health paradox: women use healthcare services more frequently, yet men experience higher rates of premature mortality in many countries. The explanation is relatively straightforward. Positive coping compounds long-term health advantages. Avoidant coping compounds risk.

Avoidance and Dopamine: The Short-Term Fix

Much of negative coping is rooted in a well-established psychological concept: avoidance. Instead of confronting stressors directly, individuals change their internal state to escape discomfort.

Many of these behaviours are dopamine-driven. Alcohol, drugs, gambling and pornography stimulate the brain’s reward system, creating temporary relief or distraction. However, they often:

• Reinforce avoidance patterns
  
• Reduce distress tolerance
  
• Create dependency cycles
  
• Increase long-term stress and health burden
  

Chronic reliance on avoidant coping has been linked to poorer psychological adjustment and increased risk of depression and health decline (Holahan et al., 2005).

The key insight is this: both positive and negative coping strategies alter your mental state, but only one category builds resilience over time.

The Good News: Coping Can Be Rewired

Neuroplasticity persists throughout adulthood. Even long-standing habits can be reshaped. Change may feel uncomfortable at first. Social environments may resist it. But behavioural patterns are not fixed identities.

The objective is not perfection. It is replacement.

Many positive coping strategies produce comparable, and often more sustainable, dopamine responses, while improving physical and psychological health.

You do not have to implement everything. The key is finding what works consistently for you.

8 Coping Strategies That Shape Health and Life Outcomes

1. Walking or running in nature: Exposure to green spaces and natural environments reduces stress hormones, improves mood, and enhances cognitive recovery.
2. Strength training: Resistance training improves mood regulation, metabolic health, and self-efficacy. Physical mastery often translates into psychological resilience.
3. Mindfulness, meditation and journaling: These practices increase emotional awareness and reduce avoidant coping patterns by strengthening executive control over impulsive reactions.
4. Learning and skill development: Focused learning activates reward pathways in ways that build competence and growth rather than dependency.
5. Social connection beyond alcohol-centred culture: Meaningful conversation and shared growth experiences reduce stress load and increase longevity.
6. Whole, balanced nutrition: Adequate protein intake, calorie awareness, and an 80/20 approach to nutrition stabilise blood sugar and mood, reducing impulsive coping triggers.
7. Sleep consistency and quality: Sleep remains one of the most underutilised performance tools available. Consistent, high-quality sleep enhances emotional regulation and stress resilience.
8. Giving and contribution: Prosocial behaviour is strongly associated with improved wellbeing and life satisfaction. Helping others enhances meaning, a powerful buffer against stress.

Final Thought

The strongest men are not those who avoid stress, they are those who face it constructively.

Coping is not weakness. It is strategy.

And strategy determines outcomes.

“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”

References:

Addis, M. E., & Mahalik, J. R. (2003). Men, masculinity, and the contexts of help seeking. American Psychologist, 58(1), 5–14.

Courtenay, W. H. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science & Medicine, 50(10), 1385–1401.

Holahan, C. J., Moos, R. H., Holahan, C. K., Brennan, P. L., & Schutte, K. K. (2005). Stress generation, avoidance coping, and depressive symptoms. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(4), 658–666.