Invisible Until It Isn’t: The Hidden Toll of Men’s Anxiety

For 1 in 5 men, anxiety is more than just an occasional worry – it’s a daily reality. But half as many men receive an anxiety disorder diagnosis in comparison to women. Why? Many men don’t recognise anxiety symptoms, or delay seeking help thinking these symptoms will go away.

These upstream issues have downstream consequences – alarming numbers of young men are calling ambulance services not for injuries we can see, but for the ones we’ve long overlooked.

---

From the locker room to the ambulance bay: Men’s anxiety can be hard to identify

In December 2022, Tyrell Terry (then 22 years old) announced his retirement from the NBA, citing anxiety as the reason he was now walking away from a multi-million dollar opportunity to play the game he once loved. Tyrell described his anxiety as “intrusive thoughts, waking up nauseous and struggling to take normal breaths because of the rock that would sit on my chest…[and] seemed to weigh more than [he] could carry.”

Last year another prominent Australian personality Jack Steele, opened up about experiencing similar anxiety struggles. On The Imperfects Podcast, Jack described anxiety as feeling like "your whole body just shuts down. It's like your throat just closes up and your body goes numb. It feels like you're just so alone and no one can help you."

These debilitating anxiety symptoms aren’t unique to high-profile men. Research undertaken by Movember, Turning Point, Monash University and Beyond Blue found anxiety accounts for a staggering 10% of ambulance attendances for men in Australia, surpassing both depression and psychosis as the primary reason men seek emergency mental health care.

---

But why are ambulances the front line for men’s anxiety?

From early childhood, boys are raised to see courage, strength, and self-assurance as essential masculine traits. While girls often receive emotional comfort when worried or anxious, boys are encouraged to "face their fears" and suppress vulnerability. This creates a conflict between anxiety and masculine identity.

Many young men then struggle in silence, lacking both an awareness of anxiety disorders and the language to describe it. Without early support young men’s anxiety symptoms build. When they become acute, they can resemble serious medical conditions like a heart attack.

In our recently published study, we analysed the paramedic records of 694 young men, aged 15–25 years, who presented to Australian ambulance services with anxiety in 2019. While each individual story is unique, there were commonalities which could be synthesised into three different anxiety typologies.

1. Psychosomatic anxiety: The most common presentation involved sudden, intense physical symptoms (racing heart, chest pain, breathing difficulties) that mimicked serious medical conditions.

2. Substance-related anxiety: Alcohol or drug use which either triggered or intensified pre-existing anxiety symptoms.

3. Complex anxiety: Severe mental distress often accompanied by self-harm or suicidal thoughts, frequently connected to situational stressors like housing instability, financial difficulties, or relationship problems.

---

The real cost of young men falling through the cracks

Young men’s anxiety presentations can be challenging for ambulance services and paramedics. Diagnostic tests to rule out physical diagnoses are time and resource intensive. Beyond that, paramedic’s support is limited to reassurance, beathing techniques and crisis de-escalation.

But here’s the problem.

Unless young men meet the high thresholds for emergency psychiatric care, they are discharged with instructions to follow up with their GP or utilise community mental services.

This is a critical point at which many young men fall through the cracks – unlikely to access recommended community-based support because of long wait times, complex referral processes and associated costs.

Without ongoing care, these young men can re-present to ambulance services in the future with escalating anxiety crises. This not only inflicts a costly burden on emergency services, but also means young men fail to receive the anxiety support they desperately need.

---

We’re Talking About Men’s Depression — Why Not Anxiety?

For too long men’s anxiety has been overlooked and dismissed. Awareness campaigns have been successful in dismantling stigma and shedding light on men’s depression and suicide, but men’s anxiety hasn’t received the same attention.

This is despite anxiety having significant health impacts for men and being a risk factor for suicide.

Early research has demonstrated that anxiety can manifest differently in men and women. Young men report pronounced physical symptoms but dismiss or misinterpret these experiences, not associating it with an anxiety disorder.

Without recognition or intervention these symptoms worsen and the impacts on young men’s lives – including their social and vocational functioning are severe.

---

Moving upstream

To reduce anxiety-related ambulance callouts among young men, we need to intervene earlier. This means:

• Taking men’s anxiety seriously and legitimising it as a mental health concern worthy of treatment

• Creating early intervention models tailored to how men experience and express anxiety

• Launching awareness campaigns that speak directly to young men — and normalise their experiences

• Training clinicians to identify and diagnose anxiety in men, including physical symptom presentations

• Making support accessible, with low-barrier entry points (such as online men’s mental health interventions), shorter waitlists, and simpler referral pathways.

The cost of overlooking men’s anxiety is overwhelming our emergency systems. Men’s anxiety is not weakness. It’s not rare. And it shouldn’t take a crisis for us to take it seriously.

With the right tools, training, and a cultural shift, we can step in earlier — and respond more meaningfully.

Dr Krista Fisher

What did you think of this article? Share your thoughts in the comments below.