Honestly I’m not close with many other men. My wife and I each only have sisters and neither of us are really close with anyone outside our family. Couple buddies at work, one BIL who is a recluse and kind of an ass and one BIL who is a great dude and very kind but about a decade my junior so talking to him about things troubling me would feel inappropriate.

I will share some surface level emotional challenges with my work buddies, anything else I either process/eventually forget about on my own or my wife is my only support system.

When I was younger I was bad about over sharing but it’s hard for me to gauge that correctly so I err on the side of less with friends.

I do provide, I think a lot of emotional support to my wife and one of our other family members who are pretty open about concerns for the future with me, which I’m pretty proud of sometimes and very stressed by and a little resentful (not toward my wife, the other individual, who my wife is also a major support for) about at other times.

I will say that like most people I do occasionally have conflicts with my spouse and being as she’s basically my whole support system I basically just have to stew with it til I get over it when this happens. I don’t really discuss it even in vague terms with those friends I do have because I think it would make me feel like a misogynist to do so (you know “hyuck hyuck hyuck anyone else hate their wife?” and I love her very much actually).

Overall I would have to say even posting this feels like over sharing and is a little uncomfortable but it’s a mostly honest accounting of how I share (or don’t) my emotions with people around me.