Men’s mental health doesn’t fall apart because men are “weak.” It falls apart because so many men were trained to shut down, shut up, and “handle it” until they can’t.
In this episode of Beat The Mental Health Out Of It! (AKA “BTMHOOI!”), host Nicholas Wichman (“The DEFECTIVE Schizoaffective”) and co-host Tony Medeiros (“IndyPocket”) sit down with close friend, Josh Guffey (aka “Guff”) for another real, no-holds-barred conversation. Josh is also a passenger on “The Struggle Bus,” so this episode has that off-mic honesty — not performative internet takes.
We talk men’s mental health, toxic masculinity, vulnerability, emotional shutdown, and the pressure to perform strength at all costs — and what that pressure does to relationships, identity, anger, shame, and the ability to ask for help. We also get into why some men become jaded in relationships with women, the psychological impact of divorce, and why gender-war thinking poisons everyone.
We go into the culture-war mess too: the red pill pipeline, performative masculinity, and how online ideology can turn pain into entitlement and hostility. We also talk feminism, backlash, and what happens when serious issues get turned into social currency instead of accountability.
And we talk about the stakes: why male suicide rates are so high, how isolation and shame drive it, and why “tough it out” isn’t a healthy plan.
In this episode, we talk about:
If you’re a man struggling with emotional shutdown — or you’re trying to untangle resentment, red pill thinking, divorce pain, and relationship damage without getting shamed or preached at — join our Discord, “The Struggle Bus”. You can talk openly and get real feedback from people who actually want you to grow. (link below)
Join our free Discord community, “The Struggle Bus"
https://discord.gg/emFXKuWKNA
Podcast artwork by Ryan Manning
