Tuning in to mental health

TWO blokes are doing their best to tackle some of life’s biggest social problems.

Justin ‘Thommo’ Thompson and Jared ‘Shooter’ McGavin host a radio show and podcast series In the Middle with Shoots and Thommo every Monday night.

Mr Thompson said the show deals with lifestyle topics for people aged 25 to 55 years old and the idea came around as he and Mr McGavin shared conversation about their lives.

“We’re kind of in that middle stage of our lives where we’re starting to mature but we don’t see ourselves as old yet,” he said.

“We’re learning about all of these things that are important in life like work and family and our mental health and having positive influences on our lives, creating positive habits.”

Broadcast live on Voice FM, with an extended podcast on Podbean, the program looks at topics such as seasonal depression, human optimisation, habit forming, people pleasing and time management, with an expert guest each week.

“Last week we had probably our most powerful guest come on and talk about post-natal depression from a family’s perspective,” Mr Thompson said.

“We had a couple of guys tell us that was something they really struggled with where there in that stage of their lives where they’re as busy as they’re ever going to be with work, they do have young families, and they’re relationship is being strained in a lot of ways as a result of this.

“They wanted to know some of the causes and what are some of the things they can do to navigate through this period.”

The two hosts are quite comfortable to share their vulnerabilities, being the “poster boys” for a demographic that generally hides their emotions.

“There’s a lot of people out there that have shared experience that are really keen to learn how to navigate through these periods as best they can to be comfortable with sharing information that will ultimately better their lifestyles,” Mr Thompson.

Listen to In the Middle with Shoots and Thommo at 7pm on Monday nights or on Podbean.