Young Blood - Men’s Mental Health

Imagine if your psychologist was that rough looking bloke you met down the pub who gave surprisingly solid advice - that's the kind of vibe you get from Simon Tyler. Simo's a clinical psych and a mentally healthy workplace consultant, he also cuts his own hair and does an awful job of it...  His therapy style's shaped by his early career in construction and a lifetime of his own mental health stru...

When we think of a typical drug addict, we think of someone who turned to drugs in an attempt to cope with trauma and often childhood abuse. That wasn't the case for Culley. He describes having the perfect childhood, growing up with great parents who gave him all the love he could've asked for; but that didn't stop him getting on the ice and every other drug you can think of - choosing a life of c...

Over the Christmas holiday period we're taking you back to some of our most memorable moments from our most popular episodes. Kian Rafie is a junior lawyer who got what he thought was the dream start to the career he'd always wanted, when a mental health crisis threatened to derail it. Scroll back in our podcast library for the full episode: Legal Battle: A Junior Lawyer's Mental Health Recovery |...

Over the Christmas holiday period we're taking you back to some of our most memorable moments from our most popular episodes. For many years, Nathan hated the man staring back at him in the mirror. Deeply sad and angry, with no clue what was at the core of his distress, it took doing the hardest thing he'd ever done to start making progress - asking for help. Scroll back in our podcast library for...

Over the Christmas holiday period we're taking you back to some of our most memorable moments from our most popular episodes. Addicted to drugs and gambling in his late teens and early twenties, Angus eventually came to a fork in the road that was life or death... Scroll back in our podcast library for the full episode: The Trifecta: Quitting Drinking, Cocaine & the Punt | Angus Wood ___ We’re...

It’s an unstable time to be a young man right now… The world is rapidly evolving around us, job markets are changing, traditional gender roles are shifting; polarising content served by our algorithms is pushing us ever deeper into echo chambers of opinion and the social discourse that men are the problem looms in the background.  With me today to chat about various trending topics that intersect...

Raised by a mother with Borderline Personality Disorder, Brad was always walking on eggshells, living in fear of the next violent outburst and unable to count on anything except the future being unpredictable… Growing up with all that instability and unmet need had a major impact on Brad’s emotional development: permeating his adult relationships and looming in the background of his own marriage b...

The past few years have been a tumultuous time for masculinity…  We’ve witnessed the furore whipped up by the manosphere, and the fear that we’re raising a generation of Andrew Tate clones… We’ve had Primary prevention programs brought in to schools, spurred by the will to reduce Australia’s appalling rates of domestic violence.  Men under 30 just played a major role voting Donald Trump back into...

Sometimes going through the worst pain you’ve ever experienced sets you on a path to becoming something greater than you ever imagined.  A decade ago, Jed’s leg was crushed in a brutal workplace accident; and now he’s a 2024 Paralympic gold medalist…  Now 38, Jed’s life experience extends far beyond being an elite athlete, he’s a family man, a leader and a dude who just keeps on learning. This is ...

Imagine if your world suddenly went dark and you had to learn to live without the ability to see; That’s what happened to Ian when he was shot at the age of 21…  Having lived half his life without his eyesight, Ian’s had to adapt in every way and has dedicated himself to becoming a mentor to young men through his youth work role at Top Blokes Foundation.  This is Ian Clements… ----- We’re grateful...

Grief can take you to a dark place you never imagined, especially when it's wrapped in guilt. Drew spent a long time believing if he'd done more, his brother Mat might still be alive...As a teenager and an adult, Mat was often teetering on the edge, dealing with his inner turmoil by shutting down and keeping everyone out. For more than a decade Drew knew something wasn't right with his brother, bu...

No matter how hard he tried, Nik never felt good enough in any area of his life. Always craving respect and approval from his father that wasn’t forthcoming, he grew up believing any love he was to receive was conditional on what he could deliver. Nik manufactured a version of himself based on his idea of what the people around him wanted him to be; and spent years in the cycle of escaping reality...

The quality of our mental health is intertwined with our sense of connection to each other and the world around us. Humans are social creatures; we need community wherever we can find it, and being lonely makes us more likely to be mentally ill. Ben is a musician on a mission to create connection his own way. Since April, he's been taking his guitar down every single street in the Adelaide CBD sin...

You might be shocked to hear a third of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by another child... It's not the stereotype that comes to mind when this topic gets brought up, but it's what happened to Shannon Molloy from the age of five... An accomplished journalist and author, Shannon investigated male child sexual abuse for his book 'You Made Me This Way', interviewing experts and oth...

Grinding out a successful career as a young lawyer, Brian thought he knew the path laid out before him, until one particularly confronting case changed everything… Back then Brian had no idea embarking on his mental health journey would ultimately lead him to create a unique mental health support service called BCognitive. Brian’s got a great story, he’s doing phenomenal work and listening to him...

Most of us have had times in our lives when we’ve felt like we don’t fit in, but what if you always felt out of place no matter where you are? That’s the reality for many people on the Autism Spectrum, who are known as 'neurodivergent' a name given to those whose brain processes information in a way that’s different to the majority. At 28, Callum Reid is only now accepting the reality of l...

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is often misunderstood. We commonly think of OCD as a need to keep things in order or being a germaphobe, but the reality can be far more life altering.   Matt’s experience of OCD was coloured by a constant barrage of intrusive thoughts so intense that it drove him to make an attempt on his life. It was the peak of the crescendo in his story, but thankfully not the cl...

Countless young Aussies grow up playing sport, dreaming of life as a professional athlete. Making a career out of playing the game you love sounds perfect; but as Tom Jonas will tell you, there’s more to it than meets the eye. The former Port Adelaide captain's 13 season AFL career came to an end in 2023 after a rollercoaster year of inner turmoil. Tom's had to come to terms with hanging u...

Many of us go through life believing we’re the ones in control; that nothing is going to go terribly wrong if we do the right thing and look after ourselves. But sometimes, when we least expect it, life can be cruel and wildly unfair, reminding us of the fragility of our existence.   Everything was ticking along nicely for Kish, enjoying a night out with friends last October, when out of nowhere h...

How much porn are you watching? And how much sex are you having?... They're questions that'll get your guard up like nothing else; and although sex and porn are experienced by most people on Earth, when it comes to taking a frank look at our own sexual behaviour, many of us feel the pressure to minimise, exaggerate or avoid it altogether.  In this episode we're putting porn and sex add...

Raising two daughters with his wife in a happy home, Warren Gunns never could’ve predicted the devastating chain of events that would befall his family. His eldest, Maddie was 13 years old when she was sexually assaulted on a holiday, a trauma that led to a life-threatening eating disorder, which put pressure on her parents relationship.  Maddie had a special bond with her dad, who would’ve been 6...

Young Blood - Men’s Mental Health is the award-winning volunteer video podcast dedicated to young men's mental health. This life-changing archive of lived experience exists to share authentic stories of hardship, resilience and recovery, told by men under 40 and their loved ones from all walks of life; proving that no matter what you're going through, you're not alone! Jump in and let...

Love, it's something we all want and need; something most of us are either trying to find or trying to hold on to...We feel love as an emotion, we love others as an action... we can be in love and fall out of love; it's life's most powerful mystery and we can't solve it alone! Today's guest is Nicholas Purcell, a psychotherapist specialising in couples counselling. Our conversa...

Surrounded by violence and despair from the moment he was born, Luke’s childhood memories are riddled with pain and darkness… Sexually abused at the age of 5, and again at 14, confusion and fear became primary emotions as his life quickly spiraled in the fight for survival. Despite having his mother's enduring loved, Luke seemed destined for incarceration or early death; when everything change...

We all want to be happy... it's the ultimate goal most of us would say we're always shooting for; but what actually is happiness? And is it even attainable? My guest today is Dr Matthew Iasiello, he's a researcher dedicated to better understanding all the elements of wellbeing and how to build it. In his spare time, Matt hosts his own podcast, 'Researching Happy' where he chats to experts all over...