Why Men Struggle with Self Esteem: Brothers in Arms TV, EP7

In this episode of Brothers in Arms, Eric has a question for Dr. Dan about the things men try to do to increase self esteem that end up backfiring. Dr. Dan shares that anything that genuinely makes you feel good about you, and aligns with who you are, will always increase your self esteem. But the doc notes that there are plenty of efforts to do this that stem from false motivations or are designed to defend the self against bad feelings. These are the things that are actually harmful to self esteem, even if they were initially meant to help.

In Old News, the Brothers look at some statistics on women earning higher wages than their men and explore how this tends to impact men in their feelings about themselves. The group recognizes that certain societal constructs can often drive expectations men have for themselves, preventing them from operating more flexibility within this space. This brings us right into Breaking the Mold, where we look at another way that men can feel boxed in and having to pretend something that runs counter to the true nature of most: our love of romantic comedies. All three Brothers validate the idea that we love these types of movies, even if we might get teased about it (ridiculously so, as it is totally natural to love these imaginings). And yet, Edgar still has not seen The Princess Bride OR Say Anything!

And, finally, in our most profound segment on each show, Eric Walks the Walk, sharing a hugely influential experience in his life in finding out his ex-girlfriend was seven months pregnant with his child and lost the baby in a car accident. Eric shares how this affected him so deeply that he decided not to have kids and Edgar and Dan are there to support him, help him see what a good dad he might have been, and to know his full value comes in who he is as a person, regardless of his choice to be a parent or not.