By Katlego Sekhu
Last week on Thomas And Skhumba we painted a picture of what seeking help for mental health issues looked like for men.
It was concluded that feeling helpless is a consequence of dealing with a broken mental health system. However, a team approach and the inclusion of professionals can make mental health issues more manageable.
This morning we focused on men who are aware that they have mental health issues, but for whatever reason don’t want to talk about it or struggle to articulate their problems.
‘Intervention-style’ mental health conversations can be intimidating and cause someone to withdraw from the talk altogether.
“As a man, would you know how to ask for help for mental health issues should you start seeing warning signs in yourself?
“Do you maybe have a subtle way of making people around you aware that you’re in a bad space without actually getting into detail?” Asked Thomas.
Skhumba shared: “With me, people around me know when I need help. My temper becomes very short and I snap at everything and everyone. That time I’m five minutes away from doing a show.
“What Sindi, Pasane, and my wife would do is ask me to take time off. Maybe they don’t know what to say to me, or how to say things to me. Maybe I will tell them what I’m going through.
“We as amajita, we don’t know how to ask for help. We know we’ve got issues but how do we ask for help? Do I open up? And it’s very hard.”
What are people saying on social media
Loving the new #MensConference feature, you are saving lives. Please grow it include mens health, road to menhood etc… from a queen im happy kings are speaking out.
— I Just Accept😎 (@SibozWorld) March 8, 2022
Most people with mental issues arent aware they have mental issues & I don’t know too many people that like to let people know they’re in a bad space, people fake a lot of things just to hide that feeling. #ThomasAndSkhumba
— Chef Chainey (@ChefChainey) March 8, 2022
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