This is something we hear about all the time when it comes to men; they keep their problems to themselves and don’t speak up and seek help because it might affect their macho image, believing that others might think less of them or think they are weak.
The truth is you are macho, full of courage and true bravery for speaking up and taking action with your problems, particularly when it concerns your mental health.
I can certainly relate to the above. In the past I was the man who would have felt that as a man it was a sign of weakness to show that you had any issues. I believed that friends would mock you if they found out that you had problems or a perceived weakness and so I would keep it locked up internally and not share my problems with anyone. As I got older I would share parts of the issues but I never dealt with them completely. There would still be some of the macho “I’m invincible” mentality affecting my decision making process.
Last September 2015 this all changed for me and to this day I still don’t know why. I had an external situation that affected me in a very bad way and it left me in a distressed state of high anxiety and full of panic. I was finding it difficult to get my breath and my chest was thumping. I was staggering like I was drunk (I am not a heavy drinker at all).
After a period of time when I composed myself, I made a decision in that moment that I needed to take action now and not let this situation take hold of me and start eating away at me and my mental health, only to cause future issues for my family and I at a later stage. The only reason I can think of as to why I took immediate action was that I was running on a regular basis and I had found this very beneficial for helping me to keep my mind clear and focused, otherwise I have no doubt that depression would have set in, and comfort eating and withdrawal from family life would follow.
What did I do to take action? I went to visit my GP the same day and got checked out and following a conversation she recommended that I seek counselling and gave me some information to take away and consider. I wasted no time when I got home and made a decision that there were three things that I could do to help me cope with this extremely difficult period in my life.
- Running, a major benefit – I continued to exercise around 3 times a week and believe me some days were incredibly tough to get the motivation to get out and run even for a few minutes, but I always felt great after it. Also during this time, Bressie’s Ironmind was on TV and this gave me an extra boost to keep going as exercise has a huge part to play in keeping on top of your issues.
- Counselling, a must – This was probably the hardest thing to do for me as I was thinking what am I going to say? Plus I’m not sure if I want to talk to a stranger or what will they think of me? Anyway I made the appointment to see the counsellor as this is about taking care of my mental health and that’s more important to me than my pride of feeling stupid in front of a stranger. During my sessions I learned about meditation and this became a key part of my daily routine – just taking time out to help relax the mind and body. The counselling gave me clarity on what was happening to me and what I needed to do to help me cope with my situation and to think about the future.
- Bio Energy Therapy helped balance the body – I was aware of bio energy therapy because my wife had some sessions of it in the past. What is it you may ask? “Bio Energy is the electro-magnetic energy that circulates throughout the body feeding energy to all of the other systems, and providing the body with power to maintain physical, mental and emotional health”. This turned out to be great decision as this helped restore balance to my body while removing a lot of negative energy from my body and help me make clear decisions and think in a different more positive way.
So, together with the fantastic support of family, friends and taking the above actions it has helped me take control of my mental health and I have set myself a goal of trying to help others take control of their situation. I have set up a facebook page ZERO2running to help people to go from ZERO 2 running while also posting regular articles about wellbeing from great sources such as alustforlife.com that are doing great things for wellness in general.
All there is left for me to say is men, please look after your mental health. Speak up and take action. Today.
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