Sort Your Head Out: Mental health without all the bollocks

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As a broadcaster, he has fronted documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 and hosted over 1000 hours of live national radio across the BBC, talkSPORT and talkRadio.

But when he reached his thirties, work, relationships and fatherhood started to take their toll. Like so many blokes who seemed to be totally fine, he often felt like a complete failure whose life was out of control; anxiety and depression had secretly plagued him for years. Turning to drink and drugs only made things worse. Sam knew he needed help – the problem was that he thought self-help was for hippies, sobriety was for weirdos and therapy was for neurotics. In a past life, he was a lad mag writer and, from 2009-2011, was the editor-in-chief of Heat magazine. He later became editor in chief of Comedy Central UK. My writing has appeared in The Guardian, Observer, The Sunday Times, Independent, Daily Telegraph, NME, Q, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, the New Statesman and numerous others. And it was probably unhealthy that this was my first proper grown up job doing that sort of stuff, because it kind of made me feel, well, right, this is just working life is lots of free things and free drinks and pretty girls all the time and all the rest of it.” When I landed my first job in journalism I told myself that the best way to succeed was to never stop. When I finished at the office I would go home and write down ideas, do bits of research, read other newspapers and magazines obsessively. I was a product of Thatcherism – totally in thrall to my own productivity. I didn’t just want a steady job that paid the bills. I wanted to create great things constantly and be defined by them. And I also wanted to get totally shitfaced every weekend (plus sometimes on a Thursday).I craved stimulation at all times. I was terrified of even fleeting moments of boredom. I thought of myself as being constantly on the run from lapsing into that fat bored kid I had once been. The truth is, I was probably just scared of ever being alone with my own unfiltered thoughts. Sam Delaney is an experienced author, journalist and broadcaster with a special interest in men’s mental health. He recently qualified at Level 2 in counselling skills and became an ambassador for the mental health charity, CALM.

Loaded kind of actually took what we were already doing and how we’re already living and sort of elevated it into something that was almost aspirational. Which seems hilarious now because I wouldn’t want my son to aspire to that lifestyle. But still, basically, by the time I graduated in 97, I’d gone off a career in politics, which is what I’d previously been aiming for, and I only wanted to work in magazines. I have spent years as a broadcaster both in radio and TV. I have hosted numerous shows on BBC 5Live, BBC London and talkSPORT and presented documentaries for BBC Three and Channel 4. From 2016-2018 I hosted the drive time show on Talk Radio, covering the Brexit referendum, two general elections and the 2016 US Presidential Election, live from Washington DC. A nationwide network of men’s groups that meet every Monday night at 7pm to chat about how they’re getting on.I wanted to write and talk about it in exactly the same way that I’d written about football or music in the lad mags, or that I’d talked about football on TalkSport for years. I wanted to apply the same tone, the same humour to sort of normalise it and disarm blokes who would ordinarily feel very awkward around that kind of chat.” The Lad Mag Years Thankfully, more positive role models are emerging who are showing you can be successful AND vulnerable. Of course, in practical terms, there are people much worse than you. But what I would say to that is no socioeconomic advantage, no familial advantage, no advantage in relationships or family incubate you from being a human being. You’re a human being, whoever you are and whatever your circumstances are.