Today is not an easy society to survive in.
From fierce job competition and the volatile nature of job stability, to the fear of being judged on both the superficial and personal levels, society today is a brutally tough crowd.
While women may find it easy to talk about their insecurities, the same unfortunately, cannot be said for the opposite gender. Males are stereotypically perceived as more ‘dominant’, and emotional insecurity can be unfairly judged as weakness. But that is not the case. We reached out to 20 local males to find out about their worries.
*All names have been changed.
1. The Future
This was one of the most common fears shared by the men we spoke to.
Amin shared that he worried because the future looked unclear, and that the idea of not knowing what was coming or what he would be doing in 5 years frightened him.
This thought was shared by Darren, who while sharing about the having secured a job not long after graduation, the volatility of the job landscape and the constant need to up-skill himself worried him.
“There is no guarantee anymore nowadays. The market is so bad that anything can happen to anyone.”
2. Self-Worth
Alastair, who was married, talked about his fears of not being good enough for his partner. He wanted to ensure that she would always get the best so there would be no regrets later on.
“We only live once and she decided to choose me as her partner so if I cannot give her the best then I feel that I failed,” he reflects.
Speaking to Isaac, he also touched on the value of his self-worth, and that he often felt like he needed to “go above and beyond to prove his worth, and even then he rarely feel that he was ever good enough.”
“There are moments when I don’t think I am worth much. Maybe it’s the standards I set for myself or maybe it’s just feeling inferior to all those high flyers or scholars. So these things fuel my desire to achieve.. more.”
3. Body Type
“I guess I feel insecure when I am in a situation where I’m not good enough, or I feel that I’m not good enough. Like when I go to a beach, I feel insecure cause I don’t have the figure of a hot guy,” shares Ang.
Kevin also shares these thoughts, as he talks about hitting the gym extensively during his university days as he always felt insecure about his figure.
“Some of my friends were really athletic with 6 packs, and that affected the way I saw myself, especially around our female friends. There was once I even exercised so much that I tore my ligament.”
Going to the gym can be highly damaging to the body if not enough care is given to your safety, so for those for whom sweating it out is not particularly attractive, aesthetic treatments can also do the trick.
The Amaris B. Clinic’s VO2 Weight Loss Therapy combines non-invasive fat reduction technology to target and address problem areas on the body. When these treatments are coupled with meal management, it can also guarantee long lasting weight loss results.
4. Facial Appearance
“I used to have very bad acne when I was younger, and that led to me having really bad pockmarks on my face. I’m quite a social person too, and I like going out, but sometimes I get overly worried about what people think when they look at me.”
“Medicines didn’t seem to help either,” shared Justin.
“For me, my friends pointed out to me that I was starting to show wrinkles when I entered university,” Raj revealed. “I figure it was just the stress and that it’d go away after my exam periods were over, but they didn’t.”
He teases that while he still has wrinkles, he sometimes tries to hide them with a bit of make-up. “This makes me worried sometimes that my friends would catch on!”
Since makeup might not be everyone’s cup of tea, why not take a visit at what the Amaris B. Clinic has to offer?
Aesthetic treatment are no longer just for the fairer sex, and the clinic also has plenty of solutions for men as well, including Botox to get rid of aged and saggy appearances.
5. Purpose In Life
James had been working for over a year after graduation, but recently found himself wanting to go back to academia, perhaps even find a career there. However, this still led to some insecurities.
“What I wanted to do and what I ended up doing is worlds apart. And going back to school, I can’t help but think that I’m not cut out for the real world.”
6. Gynecomastia (Man Boobs)
“I used to be a lot rounder in JC,” Jun Jie shared. “and I would often skip out on PE as the white colour of my shirt would make my man boobs super obvious, especially when we were doing vigorous exercise.”
And although he has lost weight since then, he reveals that his male boobs never completely went away, and he still avoids wearing light coloured shirts.
Although many attribute these boobs to being ‘fat’, it can also be a health problem with pain in the chest area, and this pain can aggravate with age. One method guys could try would be to accept treatments.
Amaris B. Clinic is an award-winning clinic where Dr. Ivan Puah offers aesthetic treatments, and among them is surgery for male boobs.
Although surgery might sound like a drastic solution, it is actually a highly accepted solution in countries such as the US. Other surgery benefits also include a more well-defined chest area and fat reduction.
Previously, we also spoke to one of the Dr. Puah’s patients, who opened up about his story of the surgery, and how it has really helped his situation.
Insecurities Aren’t Trivial Fears
And when someone shares about their insecurities, the worst thing that you could do is write it off as something insignificant. However, these fears do not need to be forever either, and there are definitely ways to work around and at least, alleviate them.
This article was written in collaboration with the Amaris B. Clinic.
Featured Image Credit: @shazbyshaz / Vulcan Post
