Lads, Lads, Lads - supporting men and their mental health | The Guide Liverpool

A powerful poem aimed at breaking down stereotypes to help men’s mental health has had more than 100,000 views since it was shared on social media on ‘Blue’ Monday.
And Lads, Lads, Lads, written by Lauren-Nicole Mayes, and performed by Scouse actor Jay Johnson, has already seen several people seek support from charities to come back from crisis - and prompted enough in donations to fund more than a dozen counselling sessions.
“I’ve had teachers asking if it’s been published because they want to work through it with their Year 11s, I’ve had mums saying they wished their sons had seen it before they took their own lives, and I’ve had men of 40 telling me it resonated with them because it’s how they’ve felt,” says Lauren.
“I said if it helped one person it would be great, that it’s helping so many is overwhelming.
“I’m not a mental health expert, but we need to make this a subject that people aren’t ashamed to talk about, that people can speak to each other, whatever they are feeling. We need to break down the stereotypes of what men are, or think they are, expected to be.”
It was produced by Corey and Kieran Rid from La De La Studio, and she asked Jay, who she knew and who had encouraged her to share it more widely, to perform it. It was filmed it throughout Liverpool before Christmas and, while he was acting of course, the message was one Jay could identify with.
“It really resonated with me,” says the 30-year-old from Anfield. “I have had ups and downs, over the years I’ve had my struggles, and I’ve asked for help before.
“There’s a lot of pressure on men, or that’s how it comes across, pressure of what society thinks a lad should be. You meet a girl, you wear your best clothes, you make out you’re something you’re not.
“We need not to do that, it should be enough to be ourselves.
“There’s still a massive stigma around mental health, it’s an illness, but because you can’t see it, there’s still a certain attitude towards people who might be suffering - ‘you’ll be alright’, ‘get yourself out of the house’… If someone has a disease we can see, we are more supportive and caring.”
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