By way of thought-provoking discussions and a brand new app, radio host Will McMahon is shining a light-weight on psychological well being points.
As a radio host within the coveted drive-time slot on KIIS FM, Will McMahon serves up the historically enjoyable fare his function requires, from discussions of “awkward nudity” to prank calls.
However Will’s frank on-air admissions about his struggles with psychological well being have struck a chord with listeners, and impressed him to contribute extra on this house.
With nearly half of all Australian adults (45 per cent) going through psychological ill-health sooner or later of their lives, he is aware of there’s loads of work to be accomplished.
“I feel everybody within the psychological well being house agrees that the one manner by (psychological sickness) is with the ability to inform different folks what you’re going by,” Will says.
“Significantly while you’re on the backside. However then there’s this nice paradox that it’s the hardest factor to do.”
On air
Will’s on-air co-host is Woody Whitelaw, his finest mate and associate in comedy. Their nationwide drive present Will & Woody launched in 2018 and has been an unqualified success, due to their apparently easy chemistry.
Final yr the Australian Radio Community introduced their contracts had been prolonged for one more three years.
However behind the humour, Will has discovered it tough in a job that requires him to be “on” 5 days every week.
“So, I get depressed,” he says bluntly. “Not as a lot as I used to.
“It’s actually easy. For me, if I rock as much as work to do a radio present and I don’t inform folks I’m depressed, I’ve a stunning time. More often than not I’m simply hiding the truth that I really feel terrible, then I act like a d—head, and I really feel even worse about it.”
Will has used his present to attempt to normalise dialog round psychological well being.
In 2019, he and Woody recorded an intimate chat for suicide prevention charity R U OK? about melancholy and the way it impacts their friendship and dealing relationship. Will says the response was “superb”.
“I nonetheless get folks coming as much as me saying they shared that video with buddies and it actually made a distinction,” he says. “Irrespective of how usually you handle to be clear sufficient to inform somebody what you’re going by, while you’re going by it, it’s nonetheless bloody exhausting to do. Each time.”
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Onerous instances
A excessive reaching pupil rising up in Melbourne, Will has battled melancholy on and off as an grownup.
He says step one in direction of serving to himself is recognising the signs.
“I begin noticing a couple of ideas which can be sure up in self-hatred, I’ll discover I discover it exhausting to maintain eye contact, I will be very irritable and nihilistic. They’re the signs and if I catch it there, that’s good, I do know I must cease placing stress on myself.
“And never simply me, additionally my associate (Sem). If I’m flat for 2 days and I don’t inform her then all of it comes down once I break down in tears — or for lots of males melancholy usually manifests as anger or frustration — she’s far worse off than if I had come clear earlier and mentioned ‘look, I’m not feeling nicely’.”
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Working towards self-care
Sustaining his bodily and psychological well being is a part of Will’s every day routine. This ranges from easy measures akin to strolling the canine, to extra excessive experiences akin to attending a Vipassana meditation retreat in Sri Lanka.
“I train every single day, it doesn’t matter what it’s. It is likely to be intensive train, or it is likely to be yoga. No matter floats my boat, so long as I’m getting some type of circuit breaker to get your blood pumping and really feel alive.
“I meditate and if I must, I speak to a psychologist. Being variety to myself is one thing I’m historically terrible at, and I’m regularly studying that it’s the factor that makes me essentially the most comfortable. It simply breaks down all of the s–t of what I must do and who I must be and let’s me loosen up extra into being an imperfect, weak dude who’s simply fumbling his manner by like everybody else. And that’s OK.”
New psychological well being app
Saying “I’m not OK” will be the toughest factor to do, whether or not it’s to a buddy, associate, household or employer. Wishing for a manner that he may “talk with out speaking”, Will McMahon had a jolt of realisation when he regarded down on the cellphone in his hand.
“I used to be like, ‘oh my God, I talk with out speaking every single day’. That’s what telephones are so good for. Breaking apart with somebody by textual content message — or getting dumped, I’ve been there — folks do it as a result of they don’t should take care of the emotion, however they nonetheless get the message throughout. That’s what a textual content is, that’s why they’re so useful.”
Will took this idea and used it to develop a new psychological well being check-in app referred to as Share My Temper.
The app asks customers to price their temper on a sliding scale, after which asks ‘would you wish to share your temper with anybody else?’
“The app has textual content messages that are already populated, so that you don’t should provide you with a pleasant manner of telling folks or suppose too exhausting about what you’d say to get the message throughout,” Will says.
“If I really feel terrible initially of the day, I hearth off a message to Woody or my producer and say ‘guys I’m not feeling nicely’ then they know why I’m performing weirdly and so they know how you can behave round me. And I can type of take care of it in my very own manner.”
Created by Will and a core group at ARN, the Share My Temper app was developed along side a number one medical psychologist, Gus Worland’s psychological health charity Gotcha4Life and supported by Chemist Warehouse.
Will hopes it should assist others who’re battling psychological well being points to discover a voice after they want it most.
“It’s so exhausting in these moments to inform folks round you ways you’re feeling, even after they’re your salvation.
Extra psychological well being information:
- Warning indicators your psychological well being is probably not okay
- Sir John Kirwan’s easy ideas for taking care of your psychological well being every single day
- 6 issues psychologists do to take care of their very own psychological well being
- Surprisingly easy issues you are able to do to assist your psychological well being
Written by Anna Mind
