Young Blood - Men’s Mental Health

For more than a decade, Luke McLean was controlled by a gambling addiction he couldn't escape. He was 17 when he got hooked after his first win at the TAB and went on to spend just every cent he ever earned on online sports betting. The habit made him hate himself and very nearly claimed his life. Fortunately he found a way to finally break free before it was too late. Go back to June 2021 in...

It wasn't long after Kian started his law career interstate that his mental health started imploding. Pride and embarrassment stopped him going to his family for help, even though he knew they'd be supportive. He felt like it was on him to solve the problem alone, because he didn't want to burden anyone.

When the end of his AFL career coincided with the breakdown of his marriage, the effects of alcohol abuse and improperly medicated bipolar disorder, Heath Black spiralled dangerously out of control to point where anything could've happened, and part of him was hoping for the worst. Scroll back to October 2020 in our podcast library for the full story - A Recipe for Disaster | Heath Black

Brad Wright very nearly wasn't here to tell this story... His teenage years were a mess; with the combination of depression, crippling low self-esteem and refusing help almost costing him his life. He had to learn how to walk again and even that paled in comparison to working out how to love himself for the first time. Now six years on from what could've been the end; Brad's helping teenagers and...

There was a time Brad thought no one would care if he died... After miraculously surviving a suicide attempt, he got the chance to realise just how wrong he'd been.

Dylan Conway is the creator of 'Brothers N Books', a popular Instagram page that grew into a charity, raising funds to install community libraries all over the country, which has since become a downright phenomenon! Dylan got hooked on books while he was stuck in hospital for over a year recovering from an unlikely condition. Reading gave Dylan something constructive to when he desperately needed...

Kian Rafie is a junior lawyer who got the dream start to his career that he'd always wanted, when a mental health crisis threatened to completely derail it...Renowned for being a cut-throat, high pressure industry with little room for error and lofty expectations, the legal profession has been known to chew up new graduates and spit them out. Kian was confronted by an office culture and various un...

2023 marks 10 years since Locky Miller was involved in a horrific car crash that changed the course of his life in an instant.  Locky lives with a brain injury and chronic pain that he’s had to learn to adapt to. It’s set him on a path he never expected to be on and it’s been an uphill battle.   Through grit and determination Locky has made a remarkable recovery and found community and purpose in...

By all odds, Locky shouldn't be alive.

Construction has some of the highest suicide rates of any industry and as psychologist and former construction worker Simon Tyler will tell you, that's partly down to the hyper masculine culture that exists on work sites. Simo’s good mate Richie Welch has been in the construction game for more than two decades and there was a time both men were saved by a single conversation, so they know as w...

That’s Nathan Schulz, he’s a mountain of a man who was scary to watch flying into fits of rage when he was living with uncontrollable anger and didn’t know why…  With a history of being severely bullied during his school days, Nathan fell into a depressive slump for many years and had no idea what was behind it; the distress only increasing his feelings of inadequacy and shame. It all came to a he...

It took coming close to death for Nathan to realise he wanted to live… Luckily he still had the chance and since then he’s been making the most of it.

Tyran Mowbray is a former footy player, bricklayer and mineworker and for a long time, his main focus was getting smashed and having as much sex as possible.  Tyran had deep-seeded intimacy issues, made all the worse by a porn addiction he couldn't kick; and by his late twenties he was so detached and desperate, that he took off across the world in search of himself.  He went from one extreme...

Young Blood creator and host Callum MacPherson joins ABC radio for Mental Health Month, to share the Young Blood - Men's Mental Health podcast origin story and talk men's mental health with host Sonya Feldhoff.

Charles Brice's life changed forever when a motorbike accident shattered his spine and left him a quadriplegic. He was 19 when he was told he'd never walk again. His isn't a story of a miracle recovery, but it is one of incredible grit and heart. Having adapted to his restrictions and rehabilitated himself to the point of independence, Charles is now striving for more. ------------- Sc...

Toby Whittle is a personal trainer and on the surface, a confident, easy-going dude. But on the inside it's not all smooth sailing. In fact throughout his life Toby's increasingly struggled with anxiety that eventually manifested in frequent panic attacks. And in 2020 a combination of social isolation, stress and confusion threatened to drive him over the edge, Toby's brother's als...

When Toby first started having panic attacks he had no idea what was happening or what he could do to stop it. He kept it all to himself, but that only made it worse.

Angus Wood is a 25 year old knock about bloke from Melbourne, who not too long ago didn't think he'd still be here at all; let alone creating the positive change he is now. Gus has struggled intensely with his mental health since his late teens, going down a dark path of drug and gambling addiction. By the age of 23, it was either going to be the end or a new beginning - thankfully everyth...

“There’s been days where I wanted to quit, there’s been days where I cried, there’s been days where I thought I was gonna relapse, there’s been days where I’ve gone to the gym and just let all the anger out… But I’M HERE, I’m alive and I’m showin’ the people how to live a better life with addictions and mental health. I’ve been there, I’ve thought there was no hope, I’ve thought of taking my own l...

Edan van Haren is one of bravest young men you’re ever likely to meet… He's a survivor of child sexual abuse, one of many to be preyed upon by convicted paedophile, Maurice Van Ryn. Ashamed and confused, Edan internalised the horrendous trauma and didn’t tell a soul for seven years, with the unimaginable pain manifesting in uncontrollable anger and deep depression. When he was 21, he found the...

From the age of 14, Edan suffered repeated sexual abuse at the hands of a convicted serial paedophile and spent seven years hiding the truth of what happened from everyone he knew. Finally telling his family was a giant first step in his recovery.

West Auckland native Zane Munro never met his birth father and grew up putting on the tough guy front as he struggled to define his identity. Charging into young adulthood, Zane moved away from everyone he knew and found himself very much alone. He rapidly developed addictions to drugs and gambling in an attempt to fill the hole. It led him down a dangerous path that he believes would've been...

(Dave) Porter is a very different man today to the lost boy he used to be...Porter’s had a colourful life to put it mildly, finding himself stuck on a lonely, confusing path from a young age. It led him to live under a dark cloud of drug addiction and chronic depression for a decade; spurred on by crippling low self-esteem. His quest to understand himself took him half-way across the world to Peru...

Memorable Moments Jack Nagle was a nice, middle-class kid from a supportive, loving family. Not the background befitting the stereotype of those who destroy their lives on drugs…but that didn’t matter.   Jack ended his teens and started his twenties as the most hardcore drug addict imaginable and the fact he’s lived to tell the tale defies all probability.   Shooting up ice and heroin and swallowi...

Matt Kovatchis went through school, college and most of his 20s as a closeted bi-sexual, only coming out around a year ago. An athlete raised in a hyper masculine and sometimes homophobic environment, Matt lived with deeply ingrained guilt and shame which he projected onto others, as a bully. For the longest time, he couldn't accept and love who he really was, so he did all he could to be some...