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Chances are you don’t realize the impact anxiety can have on guys. Studies continuously show that women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder–but that doesn’t mean you’re immune.

Researchers can’t explain the causes of this disparity, but believe guys may feel pressured to exhibit anxious feelings in ways that seem more masculine.

“I think the biggest thing is men are socialized not to show anxiety,” said Carmen McLean, PhD, a researcher and clinical associate professor at Stanford University’s Department of Psychiatry. “Socializing to show agency and self-efficiency dissuades from showing anxiety.”

This is one reason anxiety is often accompanied by substance abuse and other “internalizing disorders, ” said McLean. Sometimes these signs can be subtle, meaning it’s especially important to recognize symptoms of anxiety disorders specific to males.

Some clues—nervousness, dread over impending danger and rapid breathing—are common across gender lines, but these five manifestations of anxiety disproportionately impact men:

Anxious Men Fear Dating

Men with social anxiety disorder are more likely to fear dating and are more commonly single, separated or divorced, according to an analysis of survey information from Columbia University.

“Men are supposed to take the lead in dating,” explained Stefan G. Hofmann, PhD and psychology professor at Boston University who researches anxiety. “The male is the one who is expected to take the first step. That puts them in a performance situation.”

Even in the age of apps, men are typically the pursuer. On OkCupid, males are three times more likely to send a first message in an opposite-sex exchange. This means constantly offering yourself up for evaluation and rejection–an anxiety-inducing prospect.

“It’s a challenge for people who don’t like to play that game,”said Hofman.

Plus, some agonize over being chronically single–with reason–David Ezell, clinical director of Darien Wellness, a psychology clinic in Connecticut, told Men’s Health.

“Men really benefit from marriage,” Ezell said. “They’re less likely to be sick. They’re less likely to be hospitalized. They’re hospitalized for shorter stays if they are hospitalized.”

Also, marriage is a status symbol, a sign of “maturation,” said Ezell.

With so much at risk, dating and bachelorhood are significant sources of stress in men with anxiety.

Anxious Men May Abuse Alcohol and Drugs

Men drink and use drugs to relieve anxiety more often than women, according to the same Columbia University study. Research has consistently shown a link between substance abuse and mental health disorders, particularly in men.

“They are looking for medication,” said Ezell. He explains a glass of booze pairs well with the “I-can-fix-it-myself” attitude associated with masculinity because it doesn’t require medical assistance and may seem like a socially acceptable way to ease stress.

“Alcohol is a very effective drug,” said Hofmann. “It’s why it’s so popular.”

Think about college students who “pre-game” by drinking at a dorm or with a small group of friends before going to larger parties. They may not realize it, but this helps manage the anxiety of socializing.

Guys who forego professional treatment may instead turn to drugs or heavy drinking to cope with anxiety–and this may be a doorway to addiction.

Anxious Men May Seem Angry

In some men, anxiety may manifest as rage or anger. “It’s much more acceptable,” said McLean. While women may find support from friends or mental health professionals, guys often let their feelings build up until they hit a breaking point–and then the flood gates open.

“Because emotions don’t get expressed [by men], because anxiety isn’t expressed in a healthy way, there are busts of anger as a result,” said Ezell. “I think anger is considered decisive.”

If typical signs of anxiety, like nervousness or fear, are discouraged in men, anger is their only acceptable emotional response.

Anxious Men Have Strained Relationships

In another study of survey data from Columbia University, men were more likely than women to experience relationship strain from worrying.

This could be because women are more likely to have a circle of close friends, whereas men tend to have few confidants who can provide support through emotional distress.

“Men tend to rely on romantic partners for stress,” said Hofman. This can be a burden, he explained.

Sociologist Eli J. Finkel further detailed the risk of putting all that psychological dependence on one person in his book, The All-Or-Nothing Marriage. Finkel argued that modern relationships are tense because people seek comfort, growth, purpose, and a host of other needs from romantic partnerships. Prior generations sought comfort in an entire network of family and friends.

“Marriage for a long time served a set and relatively limited array of different functions for us,” Finkel told the NPR podcast Hidden Brain. “And over time we’ve piled more and more of these emotional and psychological functions.”

Anxious men might burn out their few outlets (or only outlet) for social support quickly.

Anxious Men Obsesses Over Status

Ezell’s practice is located in Darien, Connecticut, a bedroom community for hedge fund managers and Wall Street executives. With a median family income of $208,125, it’s frequently named one of the wealthiest municipalities in the United States.

Despite their success, Ezell has clients who are riddled with anxiety over what they haven’t accomplished. “My clients make a lot of money,” said Ezell. “They are still not happy and want to know why.”

Guys are often anxious about getting ahead of peers, he said. If a friend winters in Aspen, his client wants to winter in the Alps. There is a particular pressure in status attainment—and status advancement—that fuels anxiety disorders for many.

“We are very grateful by getting things,” Ezell said, “but we get acclimated to that status very quickly. If I am eating well; I want to be eating better.”

DNA viruses in the detected samples

By assembling and analyzing the metagenomic sequencing data, this study only discovered two virus contig sequences, tig000081 and tig000315, which possessed the characteristics of Caulimoviridae viruses. Therefore, the two novel Caulimoviridae viruses, tig000081 (7,546 nt) and tig000315 (7,585 nt) are tentatively named “Lancifolium Caulimovirus A” (LCaA) and “Lancifolium Caulimovirus B” (LCaB), respectively.

To validate the accuracy of the two reference contig sequences, overlapping fragments from LCaA and LCaB were cloned, sequenced, and assembled to obtain full-length genomic sequences. Final genome lengths were determined as 7,542 nt for LCaA and 7,582 nt for LCaB, with complete sequences deposited in the China National GeneBank Database (CNGB) under accession number sub064865. The open reading frame (ORF) prediction using ORF Finder (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/orffinder/) and conserved domain analysis via InterPro (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/) revealed distinct genomic architectures of the two viruses. For LCaA, it had four ORFs: ORF1 was 963 nt and encoded a viral movement protein (MP) (aa 23–277), which was necessary for initial cell-to-cell movement during the early stages of viral infection and predicted to be responsible for the intercellular transport of viral genomes in plant cells [29]. ORF2 was 2,571 nt and encoded an 856-amino acid protein containing one Caulimovir coat domain (amino acids 427–522), homologous to coat proteins in Cauliflower mosaic virus. ORF3 was 1,656 nt and encoded a viral replication and maturation polyprotein (amino acids 104–527). This polyprotein contained one RT POL domain (139–318) and one RNase HI RT Ty3 domain (412–535). The retroviral reverse transcriptase (prototypical RT) had three enzymatic activities: RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, ribonuclease H, and DNA-dependent DNA polymerase. These activities involve copying the plus-strand RNA genome to produce minus-strand DNA, removing the RNA template, and synthesizing plus-strand DNA using minus-strand DNA as a template [30]. ORF4 was 1,233 nt and encoded a hypothetical protein (amino acids 64–393) with an uncharacterized function. (Fig. 1A). Former research had reported that the CaMV genome always encodes six proteins, a cell-to-cell movement protein, two aphid transmission factors: a polyprotein precursor of proteinase, a precursor of the capsid proteins, the reverse transcriptase and ribonuclease H, and an inclusion body protein/translation transactivator [5, 31]. Our newly detected LCa virus processed most of the key proteins of the CaMV, and ORF2 containing one Caulimovir coat domain. Based on the description of the above-mentioned LCa virus characteristics, we believe that this virus belongs to the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus.

LCaB contained three ORFs. ORF1 encoded a viral movement protein (amino acids 47–145), which, like LCaA, was predicted to be a Caulimoviridae movement protein. ORF2 encoded a protein containing one caulimovir coat domain (amino acids 371–467), one retropepsin-like domain (amino acids 750–841), and one RT POL domain (amino acids 982–1,161). ORF3 encoded a protein with a cytoplasmic domain (amino acids 1–30), a transmembrane region (amino acids 31–50), a noncytoplasmic domain (amino acids 54–94), and another transmembrane region (amino acids 95–113) (Fig. 1B).

The genetic evolutionary relationship of the genus Caulimovirus

According to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV; https://ictv.global/), the genus Caulimovirus currently comprises 18 recognized species, including Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) and eight other taxonomically validated members (Fig. 2). All the known genus Caulimovirus virus sequences were alignment with Mega 11 [32], and using maximum likelihood statistical method with 100 bootstrap replications to test the phylogeny. Then, the obtained tree file was up-loaded to the iTOL(https://itol.embl.de/) to beautify the graphics. Systematic phylogenetic analysis classified all reported Caulimovirus species into four well-supported monophyletic groups (Fig. 2). These species share a common evolutionary origin but subsequently diverged into four distinct lineages during key evolutionary transitions. Besides, the obtained phylogenetic tree showed that LCaA and LCaB share the closest evolutionary affinity, forming a distinct clade with Plant associated caulimovirus (PAC), Strawberry vein banding virus (SVBV), Pelargonium vein alating virus (PVA), and Malva yellow mosaic virus (MYMAV) (Fig. 2). That means within this branch, the genetic variation shared among species (the similarity of homologous gene sequences) is significantly higher than that between them and the species in other branches on the evolutionary tree. This indicates that they separated from each other for a shorter period during the evolutionary process and accumulated fewer genetic differences.

Marker-based identification of LCa DNA viruses

The tiger lily plants suspected to be infected with the virus were selected, and their phynotypes were shown in Fig. 3A and B. Based on Sanger sequencing and assembly of virus fragments in the pooled samples, we observed natural genetic variations in the LCaA and LCaB viruses. We finally obtained seven LCaA virus isolates and six LCaB isolates, and their genome sequences were deposited in the China National GeneBank (CNGB; accession number sub064865) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), which is also shown in Sub Table 2. The genome sequence similarities among LCaA virus isolates ranged from 99.59 to 99.73%, while those among LCaB isolates ranged from 98.51 to 98.91%. To identify these newly discovered LCa viruses, their genome sequences were aligned using Clustal Omega (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalo/). Based on conserved sequences shared by LCaA and LCaB, four marker primers (listed in Table 1) were specifically designed to detect LCa viruses. Following PCR amplification, Marker 1 produced amplicons of 519 bp (LCaA) and 513 bp (LCaB), whereas Marker 2 yielded 269 bp amplicons for both variants (Fig. 3D). Furthermore, using LCaA-specific conserved sequences, Marker 3 produced a 342 bp amplicon for LCaA. Combined detection using Markers 1, 2, and 3 enabled specific identification of LCaA viruses (Fig. 3D). Marker 4 generated a 203 bp amplicon using this approach. Using Markers 1, 2, and 4, LCaB viruses were reliably identified (Fig. 3D). Furthermore, the bulbs’ DNA of the marked samples in Shuanghe town were amplified using the four primer pairs. The results showed that the Shuanghe-1(SH-1) was infected with both LCaA and LCaB, the Shuanghe-2(SH-2) was infected with LCaA, the Shuanghe-3 (SH-3) was infected with LCaB, the Shuanghe-4(SH-4) not infected with LCa virus (Fig. 3E). The above experiments demonstrated that the four primer pairs enable efficient and specific identification of LCa viruses.

At the same time, another forty tiger lily plants were randomly collected at each sample collecting point. Their DNA was extracted using the methods mentioned before. Furthermore, the extracted DNA was used as templates for PCR. Marker 1 and Marker 2 were used as the primers to detect the LCa virus in those randomly collected samples. The following identification experiments were performed as mentioned before. The results showed that the LCa virus incidence of the tiger lily in Shuanghe, Sancha, Caoba Xia, Zhengdian, and Dongshan was 10%, 1%, 2%, 2%, and 2%, respectively (Sub Fig. 1).

Viral abundance analysis of all detected viruses

We analyzed the DNA and RNA virus abundance based on the viral metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis. Only one Caulimoviridae family virus was detected using viral metagenomic sequencing data, and the above experiments demonstrated that this family Caulimoviridae virus is a newly found LCa virus. The viral abundance analysis using viral metatranscriptomic sequencing data, and the virus contigs information were provided in Sub Table 2. The viral abundance statistic data are shown in Sub Table 3. The result showed that order Sobelivirales account for 8%, Iris potyvirus A species account for 5%, Shallot yellow stripe virus species account for 4%, genus Potexvirus account for 8%, Lily symptomless virus species account for 7%, Cucumber mosaic virus species account for 3%, order Reovirales account for 0.1%, Lenarviricota phylum account for 0.005%, family Caulimoviridae account for 0.001%. Other viruses were unclassified, and nearly 64% unclassified viruses belong to the order Martellivirales. 2% of unclassified virus belong to the genus Carlavirus, and 2% belong to the order Tymovirales (Fig. 4).

People often feel stressed. Many don’t have time to go outside and relax. Cities keep growing, and virtual access to natural spaces feels more common while real ones feel far away.

In Japan, people use forest bathing to reduce stress. They call it Shinrin Yoku. It simply means spending quiet time in a forest. No phones, no distractions – just nature.

Researchers wanted to test something different. Can forest bathing work through a screen? Can people feel calmer by using virtual reality instead of going outside? They set up a study to find out.

Building a virtual forest

The researchers wanted to create a very realistic virtual forest experience. To do this, they filmed a 360° VR video in Sonnenberg nature reserve. This forest is the largest Douglas fir forest in Europe.

The team didn’t stop at just recording the scenery. They also captured all the natural sounds, like the wind blowing through the trees and birds singing.

On top of that, the researchers added the scent of Douglas fir essential oils to match what someone would actually smell in the forest. Participants in the study had different experiences based on the setup.

Some people got the full experience. They saw the forest video through VR headsets. At the same time, they heard the forest sounds and smelled the fir scent. This gave them a complete, rich, multisensory experience.

Other participants only experienced one sense at a time. Some only watched the forest video without sound or scent. Others only listened to the forest sounds, while some only smelled the scent without visuals or audio.

When the researchers tested hearing or scent alone, they kept the visuals simple and plain. They wanted to avoid flashy images or colors that could distract people. The goal was to focus only on one sense at a time for clear results.

Virtual forest improved mood

The researchers didn’t just let people jump into the virtual forest. First, they showed participants stressful images to raise their stress levels.

Once people felt stressed, they put on VR headsets. They then experienced one of four versions of the forest. Some got the full version. Others experienced just one sense.

People who used sight, sound, and scent together felt the biggest mood boost. They also felt more connected to nature.

The single-sense versions helped too but not as much. Some participants even showed slight improvements in working memory. This type of memory helps with short-term thinking and tasks.

Still, the researchers said more studies are needed. They explained that the results may not apply to everyone.

Study lead author Leonie Ascone is a researcher in the Neuronal Plasticity working group at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

“We can already say that digital nature experiences can absolutely produce an emotional effect – even if they don’t replace actual nature,” noted Ascone.

VR nature in busy everyday places

Virtual nature won’t replace real forests, but it may help in other spaces. Simone Kühn, who led the research, is director of the Center for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Kühn believes VR nature could help people in stressful environments. “Especially in places with limited access to nature – such as clinics, waiting areas or urban interiors – multisensory VR applications or targeted nature staging could support mental well-being.”

“The images, sounds and scents of nature offer previously underestimated potential for improving mood and mental performance in everyday situations.”

The research suggests that nature videos can even reduce pain in some cases. Now, Kühn sees more possibilities. Virtual nature could help people in hospitals, offices, and city spaces. It might make everyday life feel less tense.

Nature still works, even virtually

This study gives one simple message – nature affects people in a positive way. Even when nature appears on a screen, it still changes how people feel. The researchers saw clear improvements in mood and connection to nature, even though participants never left the room.

But it’s important to be realistic. Virtual forest bathing is not a perfect solution. It cannot fully replace being outdoors. Real forests offer more than just sights, sounds, and smells. There is fresh air, physical movement, and other factors that VR cannot copy.

Still, virtual forest bathing can help people who cannot easily go outside. People in hospitals, city apartments, or busy workplaces often have no access to real forests. For them, even a short virtual nature experience may reduce stress and lift their mood.

The study is published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

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