Marvin Humes, Ronan Keating, Iain Stirling and Roman Kemp open up about mental health to get men talking
Loose Men Marvin Humes, Iain Stirling, Ronan Keating and Roman Kemp kicked off their history-making episode with an open and honest discussion about male mental health.
"Men are struggling and the stats say it all," Marvin explained as he opened the show. "Every day 12 men take their own lives by suicide, it remains the most common cause of death for men aged 20-49. One in three men are victims of domestic abuse and 33 men a day die from prostate cancer."
These startling statistics set the tone for a powerful conversation, during which Ronan explained how he turned to a therapist for help with his mental health.
"I get help whenever I am feeling fragile, if I need to lean on somebody," he said. "My wife can tell if I am overstressed, working too hard, things are getting on my back. Or maybe it’s a certain date that reminds me of something that’s happened, someone who has passed away. I talk to my therapist Dan."
"I will say to Storm: 'Do you think it’s time to speak to Dan?'," he continued. "Storm and I can have conversations but me and Dan don’t live under the same roof… He gives me tools and I can take those home and maybe be a better person."
Iain spoke about the difficulties men face when speaking to their friends about mental health.
"I have had those moments in the past trying to speak to mates about how you feel and you can see them, they don’t have the tools to deal with what you are saying," he said. "What would be great for us would be to normalise men talking about their feelings because I definitely find it difficult."
And Roman explained why believes this needs to start at as young an age as possible.
"We need to be teaching boys at school to open up," he said. "It's important to learn to defend yourself against your own brain. I was at school not long ago and I didn’t once get taught how to deal with stress and my own mental health."
Watch their conversation in the video above and catch the rest of our Loose Men special on the ITV Hub.
You can also find more information about ITV's Britain Get Talking campaign here.
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