Mental health problems at ‘epidemic’ level
Actor describes his own anxiety issues in effort to get young people to seek help
Gary Tank Commander star Greg Mchugh has revealed how he turned to a therapist after suffering from anxiety.
The 37-year-old writer and actor said that he “hit a huge wall” after finishing a live tour of the show.
He recounted the experience at an event on young people’s mental health, telling the audience: “I am still subject to loads of the insecurities that everyone in this room will have, it’s just I’ve been trained to mask it a bit more.
“At the root of a lot of mental health, I think, is this Scottish background, especially the male psyche of hiding that, so I can assure you I have a lot of ups and downs.
“I might be talking loudly but Idefinitelyhavemymoments.”
Speaking as part of the Scottish Parliament’s festival of politics, Mchugh also said mental health problems were reaching “epidemic” level, adding: “I think it is something we don’t talk about enough.”
He said: “We are in a generation now where images are inescapable, we are an incredibly exposed society now. No matter what you look to aspire to be, you can compare yourself on Twitter, on Facebook.
“I was asked to come here about seven months ago, I had just done a show at Glasgow at the Hydro, 10,000 people a night I played to. The show went very, very well and after the show, I’ll be quite honest, I hit a huge wall. I didn’t understand why and I started to suffer from anxiety, and nothing really made sense.”
He added: “I’m an actor, I’m a writer and I’ve done relatively well, but I wanted to come here to say to you no-one is immune to these feelings.
“Even though the show had gone well, why did I feel like that? Why did I feel anxious? Why could I not sit in a coffee shop with my wife and my two kids? I could not work it out.
“I think I had been caught in a cycle. Whether you are 37 and a actor or 14 and at school, there is this being exposed to so many things at a constant level that I just got too caught up in everything.
“I got too caught up in my work, predominantly too caught up in my work, and I had no space at all. When I hit this wall I went to see someone, this therapist who was very good and who explained that when we build ourselves up to work on a ‘fight or flight’ level, I had been working at such a level for such a long time that when I stopped after that final show my brain didn’t know what to do.
“I think I hit that wall because I had put such expectation on myself, I felt I hadn’t properly achieved it and my brain hadn’t worked out to cope with all that pressure.”
The actor continued: “I am able to come here and speak very confidently to you about things, and I can project that impression, but it’s because technically I’ve been trained to do that and I’m used to speaking in public.
“But underneath that, I still have all the frailties, all the insecurities. I work in a job where I am made redundant every few months and I am back in the market, trying to get another job.”