Guyanese men and suicide

Sep 13, 2026 Features / Columnists, News

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By Dr. Telford Layne Jr. PsyD, MSc. Postgrad, BSc.

(Kaieteur News) – A man’s identity, from childhood was built around “I am valuable because I provide” and in exchange he gets unconditional loyalty, respect, obedience, and submitted to from his partner.His financially and educated partner refuse to accept that arrangement. She sees her education and journey to be less dependent on a man. Some men adapt; others retreat into resentment, alcohol, infidelity, control, aggression or emotional isolation.

Suicide among Guyanese men is not simply an individual mental-health problem. It sits at the intersection of psychological pain, masculinity, family relationships, economic pressure, cultural expectations and access to prevention. PAHO’s Guyana data found an almost 4:1 male-to-female ratio. More recent regional data show a similar pattern: across the Americas, male suicide mortality is about 3.7 times the female rate. Suicide ideation and attempts become a reality when hopelessness and helplessness meet. Suicide is not a problem it’s a symptom

PAIN WITHOUT LANGUAGE

For men, suicide emerge when unbearable psychological pain can no longer be spoken, shared or mentally processed. Many boys learn early that fear, dependency, sadness and vulnerability are incompatible with being “a man.” A public self develops that appears tough, independent and controlled, while frightened, ashamed or wounded parts of the self are pushed underground.

What is repressed does not disappear. Childhood neglect, rejection, humiliation, sexual trauma, abandonment, financial failure and feelings of inadequacy reappear as anger, alcohol misuse, withdrawal, risk-taking or despair. A man unable to say, “I feel powerless, rejected and hurt” may instead conclude, “I am useless. I failed. Nobody needs me.”

Risk intensify when self-worth rests almost entirely on external roles: provider, husband, father, worker, sexually successful man or respected community figure. Job loss, debt, separation, divorce, inability to provide, or public humiliation can then feel not merely like problems but like the collapse of identity.

TRADITIONAL MASCULINITY

Traditional masculinity has often taught Guyanese men that strength means endurance, money, authority, sexual competence and emotional silence. Men are expected to provide, protect and solve problems. Seeking psychological help is therefore interpreted as weakness.

Contemporary Guyana, demands a wider masculinity. Women are increasingly educated and economically independent, while relationships increasingly require men to communicate, regulate emotion, co-parent, negotiate equality and develop emotional intimacy. These changes are healthy, but men who were never prepared for them experience profound uncertainty. His thinking, if I cannot provide, who am I? If she does not need me, what is my value? If I have failed, am I still a man? Yet many boys are still being prepared for relationships using an older model of masculinity based on control, authority and economic dominance.

This is where suicide prevention and domestic-violence prevention intersect. Domestic violence must never be excused as mental illness or male stress. Prevention, however, must begin before violence occurs by teaching boys and men emotional regulation, rejection tolerance, accountability, conflict resolution, trauma recovery and nonviolent communication.

Behind the angry man is a frightened boy. Behind the alcoholic man is an emotionally wounded man attempting to numb unbearable feelings. Behind the silent husband is someone who has never learned the language necessary to explain what is happening inside him. And behind suicidal thinking is a man who has reached the terrifying conclusion that there is no acceptable way to communicate his psychological pain.

PSYCHOSOCIAL BURDEN

Unstable employment, debt, relationship conflict, separation from children, loneliness, substance use, migration of relatives and the belief that nobody wants to hear his problems, marital problems, emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment by parents, domestic violence (men as predator and prey), institutional betrayal and interpersonal conflict among circumstances associated with suicidal behavior. These intense psychological pain and depression, alcohol and drug use, family dysfunction and access to lethal pesticides and herbicides. A man can have friends, coworkers and relatives around him yet remain emotionally isolated.

STATE ACCOUNTABILITY

If the government is serious about saving lives, mental health must stop being treated as a symbolic concern but as a national development priority.

A country cannot claim to care about suicide prevention while allocating 0.046% of the national budget. That level of spending is not evidence of commitment. It is evidence of neglect. We spend after the damage is done. We react after the violence, after the breakdown, after the self-harm, after the suicide attempt, after the burial. That is not prevention. That is failure management.

Where is the large-scale men’s mental-health strategy? Where is the systematic emotional education for boys in schools? Where are the fatherhood development programmes?
Where is the workplace mental-health response for struggling men? Where is the sustained public campaign teaching men that asking for help is not weakness?

HEALTHIER MEN

The answer is not to make men less masculine. It is to develop a healthier masculinity: men who can be strong and vulnerable, responsible and emotionally expressive, independent yet capable of seeking help.

That begins with parenting boys. A boy’s self-esteem cannot depend only on grades, money, toughness, sporting ability or female approval. Boys need parents, schools, churches and communities that teach them to name emotions, tolerate disappointment, accept rejection, apologize, communicate boundaries, form healthy friendships and ask for support without shame.

They also need capacity: education, vocational skills, financial literacy, mentoring, sport, problem-solving, relationship skills, healthy father figures and realistic pathways into meaningful adulthood. Resilience should mean not “suffering silently,” but recovering, adapting and knowing when another person’s help is necessary.

Adult men need similar opportunities through psychotherapy, men’s groups, fatherhood programmes, community mentors, workplace mental-health services and relationship education. Their self-worth must become broader than salary, sexual performance, marital status or public image.

We have parented and cultured our sons to fail as adults. We have parented them to self-destruct and hurt others by stripping them of their identity and shaming them for having emotions. To save our sons, we need to change our thinking and approach. If not, we will all lose.

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• dependent on a man, Guyanese men, suicide, Telford Layne

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