Do you know why women usually live longer than men? I know, that is changing in the US, especially, as the plight of women worsens, but generally speaking, it is still true.
It is certainly not because women have easier lives. On the contrary, the lives of women are, for many reasons, some biological, most cultural, much more difficult than the lives of men. Women are, in any given moment, more likely to be in physical danger, be physically abused, be food and/or housing insecure, be the sole support of minor children, lack the resources to care for minor children for whom they are the sole support, I could go on.
Yet women are generally healthier, both mentally and physically than their brothers, and live longer.
One reason is, women are more likely than men, when they have problems, or something is worrying them, to talk to someone. Maybe a relative, maybe a friend, a professional counsellor, whoever is sitting next to them on the train, depending on their situation and the resources available to them. But they will usually talk to someone.
Ideally, the person they talk to can offer some advice, maybe concrete help that solves the problem. But even if not, the very act of talking, of “unburdening” themselves, in essence, sounding the problem out loud gives her a benefit. Maybe just articulating is gives some relief. Maybe in talking about it, she sees it in a different way, and thinks of things that might help that she didn’t think of just worrying about it with her mouth shut.
But it is a fact that whether you are male or female, talking about a problem helps. The problem is, for a variety of cultural reasons, men tend not to learn this, or if we do, we learn it later in life. Depending on culture, we are taught that we should not have problems, or that we should not admit to having any problems, or that if we have problems we should solve them all by ourselves, or some variation or combination of those. Almost every culture does this.