Sort Your Head Out: Mental health without all the bollocks

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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. My writing has appeared in The Guardian, Observer, The Sunday Times, Independent, Daily Telegraph, NME, Q, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, the New Statesman and numerous others. A network of anonymous, non-clinical groups for blokes to connect, talk and listen on a regular basis. Every Monday at 6.30pm for men in the UK and online globally. 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. 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.

What else did people do to sort their heads out when numbing the senses with drugs and alcohol were off the table? Meditation? Yoga? These things work a treat for millions but, to be honest, I just wasn’t into it at that stage of my life. I was frantic, strung out. I couldn’t sleep. I felt pretty lost and alone at times. By the time I was in my late 30s I was struggling to cope with the combined pressures of work, family and socialising – and had started to self-medicate with alcohol. Sam’s writing has appeared across the national press for many years, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, The Mirror and many more.

The Lad Mag Years

A nationwide network of men’s groups that meet every Monday night at 7pm to chat about how they’re getting on. And so I got involved in magazines towards the end of the 90s, but it was still absolutely booming, and magazine publishing in this country was huge. 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 was almost competitive when I was, like, a young dad. I was like, I wanted to be perceived as, like, this sort of expert dad. I really wanted to go, ‘I’ve already been to the safari park this morning, and ballet classes, and done their French homework with them. Like, being a dad was like a new sport, and that really took its toll.” The book is very episodic and comes across slightly repetitive. I imagine a lot of the text may have started off life as a blog. It has a very bloggy feel about it. Chapter 18 is typical starting; So next time you’re in the pub, go to the trouble of asking how your mate is actually feeling. Twice. More than half would be celebrities either tipping you off or setting up stuff or, very often, one of the most popular things was to collude with the celebrity to set up a photo shoot that appeared to be stolen paparazzi shots. But which, in fact, had been fairly meticulously choreographed between us at the magazine and the celebrity’s team. Keeping it all inside was what nearly dragged Sam under. Then he began to open up and share his story with others. Soon his life started to get better and better. Now, he's written this book to help you do the same.

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Covering his complex upbringing, fast paced career, struggles with addiction and recovery, and detailing lessons he’s learnt along the way, Sort Your Head Outis Sam’s startlingly raw, compassionate and hilarious account of why opening up is the first step to sorting your head out. So it was the scandal and the mischievousness that shifted copies. And the celebrities knew that as well as we did. Its starts, as many of its ilk, with the author hitting the low point. However, being pissed at the darts and holding up a sign that asks his wife to marry him does not particularly sound like a real nadir. It was - like a lot of the book - quite amusing though. We are then introduced to traumas large and small in his life. Its interesting. Raised by a single parent in relative poverty, whilst the other parent swanned around in a Bentley. There's quite a lot of this duality at play in the book. It is possible to be a blokey bloke, but be educated. Rich and down to earth etc.