Man up, break down: unpacking the Philippines’ male suicide crisis

Richardson Mojica is no stranger to thoughts of ending it all. The 40-year-old university professor and mental health advocate was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and depression in his early 20s.

He finds fulfilment in his job, yet suicidal ideation has always lingered.

“We call it passively suicidal – you don’t want to live, but you don’t want to stop everything,” he said, revealing that he had survived a self-inflicted attempt on his life months ago.

Survival is a daily discipline: continuous medication, regular therapy, psychiatrist check-ins and a support network he has learned to lean on.

But seeking help meant confronting stigma – first at age 23 following a panic attack at work, then for years afterwards as he kept his condition to himself.

Eventually, he told his family, but he found it difficult. “I’m the eldest son, so it wasn’t easy for me to be vulnerable in front of them, to cry in front of them,” he said.

Mojica’s experience is emblematic of a wider struggle among men in the Philippines.