‘Time to can the man-up act’: Gus Worland confronts male suicide
Jonnathan Moran of the Daily Telegraph, today posted his interview with Gus Worland regarding "Time to can the man-up act.' Gus Worland is a well-known Australian media personality and a passionate advocate for mental fitness. He’s best known for founding Gotcha4Life, a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to preventing suicide by building emotional resilience and social connection across Australia[1].
‘Time to can the man-up act’: Gus Worland confronts male suicide crisis
Seven of the nine Australians who die by suicide each day are men, and Gotach4Life founder Gus Worland says traditional tough guy attitudes to blame.
TV and radio personality Gus Worland believes he knows why.
“I think it’s sort of a man up, shut up,” the media identify, and mental health advocate said on the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.
“Its sort takes a teaspoon of cement. We’ve been told all our lives, just get on with you, you see it in every TV show, you see them in the movies, on ads on TV, these big blokes that handle everything.”
The Gotcha4Life found continued: “We’re told by blokes now in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s that their emotional tap has turned off at kindy (kindergarten), first grade, in the playground and at primary school. What they feel when someone has a crack at them by being human and showing some emotion, they never want to feel that again, whether it’s shame, or embarrassment or whatever it might be, so they shut it off and go, “I’m never going to go there again’.
“It’s the old school way of just manning up that stops us being open enough to talk about the stuff that’s important to us, and girls as a general rule are better at discussing things and getting stuff out there.”
The former Triple M radio host founded Gotch4Life Foundation in 2017, charged with the ambition of developing preventive mental fitness campaigns.
And it isn’t difficult. Worland simply want us to talk more, encouraging Australians to pick up their phone and send a simple text of “I love you; I miss you, see you soon. xoxo”
“If a bloke sends that to another bloke, you’ll probably get a phone call in the next 30 seconds. It is because we don’t have enough of those vulnerable conversations,” he explained.
“It’s not too full-on that particular text, but it does make you think it’s a little different to how most people talk to each other, so it just starts a conversation.”
“And if someone does ring you or come back and say, are you drunk” Was this message for me? What’s this all about? You can say, “I was asked to think of the people I love and you’re one of them” and use that as an opportunity to go a little bit deeper.
“It doesn’t mean we burst into tears every five minutes, but to have a slightly deeper conversation outside of banter, I think is super important, especially for the people that you love…..because when people talk to me, they say they’re pretty lonely and they haven’t got the emotion muscle to actually ask people for help and I want to really change that”.
[1] Gotcha4Life <About — | Gotcha4Life Foundation>
