Men's Mental Health Blog

Nobody announces that they have run out of mates. It happens quietly, over about ten years, and then one day you need someone to call and the list is short.

Anger was the only emotion I had permission to use. It took me years to work out what was sitting underneath it.

Most people avoid hard conversations because they are scared of making it weird. You do not need perfect words or a script. You need to be honest, calm and willing to stay in it a bit longer than most people do.

Decent job, good income, a life other people quietly envy. And behind the scenes you feel flat, numb and unimpressed by the very thing you built. Here is why that happens, and what to do about it.

The pressure to keep earning, stay strong and never drop the ball is a mental load too. Most men never call it that, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed until it catches up.

A bloke can turn almost anything into a joke. Sometimes it is funny. Sometimes it is the safest version of the truth he can manage. Here is how to tell the difference, in yourself and your mates.

Most workplaces only start talking about mental health after a breakdown, a resignation or a claim. Here is why the conversation belongs before the crisis, and what a good speaker should leave behind.

Most men I work with are experts at coping. They know how to push through a bad day, numb out with alcohol or screen time, and get up the next day to do it all again. They are not weak. They are worn out. There is a big difference between coping and healing. Coping keeps you alive. Healing helps you actually live. One of the most helpful things you can do is build a simple mental health toolkit. Not a thousand techniques you never use, but a small set of habits that support y

Writing my story for “Trigger Warning” was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I had already lived it. The trauma, the collapse, the suicidal thinking, the slow climb back. Putting it on paper meant going back into some of the darkest moments of my life and looking at them up close. So why do it? Why drag all that out instead of locking it away and pretending it never happened? Because secrets were killing me. And because I knew other people were carrying their own se

If you read the words “positive emotions” and roll your eyes, I get it. When you are in a dark place, someone telling you to “just be positive” feels like an insult. It can make you feel more alone, not less. I am not interested in fake positivity. I am interested in what actually works to shift a brain and body that have been stuck in survival mode for too long. Positive emotions are not about pretending everything is fine. They are about giving your nervous system a chance

“I'm fine.” Two words. For a lot of men, they are not true. “I'm fine” can mean “I do not know how to talk about this”, “I do not want to worry anyone”, or “I am barely hanging on.” We think keeping it inside is the strong thing to do. We tell ourselves we are protecting our partner, our kids, our mates. What we are really doing is pushing the pressure down until it leaks out somewhere else. Let’s talk about the real cost of bottling things up, and what it looks like to do it

It's time to dispose of these 7 Myths About Men’s Mental Health. Enough is enough! We hear it all the time. “Men do not talk.” “Blokes just get on with it.” “Real men handle their own problems.” I believed a lot of those lines for years. It nearly killed me. The truth is, men do feel. Men do struggle. Men do want support. What gets in the way is a pile of myths that do not match reality, but still control how we act. Let’s call some of those myths out and see what happens whe

You do not need a psychology degree to help a mate who is struggling. You just need to care enough to show up and hang in there when the conversation gets uncomfortable. Help a Mate Who Might Be Suicidal I know how heavy this stuff can feel. I have been on both sides of it. I have been the bloke who was not sure he wanted to be here. I have also been the friend hearing those words from someone I cared about. Neither role is easy. This guide is here to give you some structure,

What does it mean to be resilient? Growing up, I was a pretty ambitious kind of kid. By the age of 21, I had finished high school, earned a Certificate III in Geoscience, worked in the Mines, worked on the oil rigs, was a volunteer firefighter for the Country Fire Service, had joined the army and had risen to the ranks of Special Forces. I knew what I wanted, and I always went for it. I look back and I can see that younger version of me…with a fuel tank full of optimism and a

How positive emotions can increase productivity and performance... Why is it that we can remember everything bad or negative that has happened to us in any given day, but when we’re asked to think about anything good that has happened to us today, it’s not so clear cut and we really have to stop and think about it? Talking about positive emotions and where they come from would have to be one of my favourite conversations these days. My entire life, I had no notion, no knowl

Some wounds do not show up on a scan. After two tours of Afghanistan as a Special Operations Engineer, I came home looking fine and feeling anything but. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder does not announce itself. It moves in slowly. The nightmares. The flashbacks that arrive in a supermarket aisle. The guilt about the mates who did not come home, and the strange shame of being the one who did. For a long time I did what a lot of veterans do. I blamed everything except what had

What to do when someone confides in you, and how to achieve the best possible outcome from those difficult conversations... I vividly remember the first time I confided in one of my mates in a state of serious distress. This happened many moons ago when I was still in the Army and had recently returned from my second tour to Afghanistan. I had been home for some 6-8 months and my world was imploding. Things were no longer making any sense. I was so lost, confused, frustrated,

People sometimes ask how a Special Forces engineer ends up standing in front of a room talking about mental health. The short answer is that I nearly did not make it here. The longer answer is this post. The short version I served as a Special Operations Engineer with the Australian Special Forces and deployed twice to Afghanistan. I came home with PTSD and major depression, and my twenties became a fight to justify each morning. Today I speak, mentor and advocate, because as