Bressie's Ironmind is a new RTÉ series that demonstrates the link between physical exercise and positive mental health. In the series, Niall Breslin (Bressie) trains four people battling mental health issues for a half-Ironman triathlon. Bressie believes exercise, diet, therapy and support from loved ones can help manage mental health issues, as these approaches helped him overcome his own struggles with depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. The documentary series aims to help reduce the stigma around mental illness and show that it is common and manageable.

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The week’s hottest shows
New Series
Bressie’s Iron
Mind
Sunday 22nd November,
9.30pm, RTÉ 2
14 TVnow
Ironing Out The Issues...
O
ne is left feeling
remarkably
impressed by the
passion with which
Niall Breslin speaks
about his ambitions
to stamp out the stigma in
Ireland surrounding mental
health. In his new RTÉ series for
instance, Bressie’s Ironmind, he
demonstrates the link between
exercise and positive mental
health by training four ordinary
folk battling their own mental
health issues for a gruelling
half-Ironman. Bressie also enlists
the help of experts, in everything
from psychology to nutrition, in
coaching the foursome for the
mammoth event. Here he reveals
too how a combination of diet,
therapy and a regular fitness
regime helped him to conquer his
darkest demons...
TVN: Bressie, how long did it
take you to write your book
Me And My Mate Jeffrey?
I started writing it in January and
I wrote it in three months. It’s
not easy writing a book – you
can’t force it, if you’re not feeling
it. It’s factual based, so writing
a fictional book would be a
different animal altogether.
TVN: Who is Jeffrey?
It’s a name I gave my mind. Some
people call their black dog
I call mine Jeffrey.
TVN: Your new RTÉ series
sees you demonstrate
the link between physical
exercise and positive mental
health. Is the TV series linked
to the book?
No, the series hadn’t been close
to being commissioned when I
started writing the book. I see it
as my job, as a mental health
campaigner, to get mass
media engaged with mental
health because up until this
point it hasn’t been part of
the mainstream agenda.
TVN: So what was the
turning point for you
to deal with your own
mental health issues?
It was definitely the
panic attack I had
before The Voice. It
happened 15 minutes
before I went on live
television so I knew
that something had
to give. In the past
I would have tried
mindfulness or CBT
(cognitive behavourial
therapy) but give it
one session and say
this is s*** and just run
away from it. I promised
myself then I would be
patient, give everything
Niall Breslin chats to Deborah McGee about
why he’s facing his demons head on...
getting low. Over time, and don’t
get me wrong it still bites me in
the arse every now and again, but
it’s becoming a lot more rare for
me. I think my next step now is
to spread the message as much
as I can in things like television.
Television has spoken about it,
but much more in the statistical
and political way, or even in the
Oprah Winfrey everything will be
okay way. It’s not f*****g Oprah
Winfrey: it is hard, it’s not easy.
TVN: What would you say
to someone in the grip of
depression right now?
People who are dealing with
it don’t need to be told look at
the light. They need to be told
they are not alone, that it’s very
common and that there is actually
things you can do if you have the
strength to go and get that help.
So I think that is something I’m
trying to really point out. I don’t
want to create programming that
is all bells and whistles and great
because that’s disingenuous
to the issue. In the same way if
I was doing a programme on a
physical issue it wouldn’t be all
great. If I was doing a programme
on cancer it wouldn’t be it’s
grand you’ll be alright. You have
to address the serious potential
issues of cancer in the same way
that you do mental health.
TVN: So what techniques do
you use to cope with your
anxiety?
I have loads and I do them
everyday. I practice mental fitness
everyday. It’s something in the
same way people go to the gym
everyday for physical fitness I go
for my mind. Mindfulness would
Writing a book is
proud achievement
named it Jeffrey. I humanised it,
I objectified it. I educated myself
and I’ve never educated myself
on anything before. I looked at
every possible thing I could do,
even things like exercise, diet,
mindfulness all sorts of therapy
but CBT was definitely the one
that allowed me to make sense
of my thoughts and calm myself
down when I needed to calm
myself down. But that took
months. I got competitive with
it, whereas before I beat myself
up about it. I turned and faced it.
When you objectify something
you can give your attention to it
and say ‘Right Jeffrey’. It helped
me definitely rather than have
this unknown demonic kind of
possession, because that’s what
it felt at times it’s just in thin air,
like a wave... so if you could feel
panic coming on you could go
‘Right Jeffrey f*** off. Not today.’
Self-awareness is critical, and
being aware of how behaviours
affect you as well.
TVN: Behaviours such as...
Well, I’d never made the
connection
with alcohol
– especially
how a
session could
so negatively
impact on me.
I didn’t want
to make that
connection
because I’m
Irish and we
do love a
good night
out and
socialising
with friends. I
forced myself
to look at my
drinking, and
I wasn’t a
bad drinker
or a heavy
drinker, I just
knew it was having a really bad
impact on me. I started making a
connection between my immune
system, and found when I was
abusing my body I was getting
very low, whereas some people
might get a chest infection, I was
“I named
the problem
Jeffrey. I
educated
myself and I’ve
never educated
myself on
anything”
Bressie helps train Jade Hoynes,
Orla Connolly, Mark Foley and Colm
McCormack for a half-Ironman
Looking suitably serious
in the red chair
its full course, give it
time and that’s what
I did – don’t get me
wrong it still took a
long time – but the
fact I had a plan of
attack for what I was
going to do was quite
comforting in itself.
TVN: What was
that plan
exactly?
I

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The week’s hottest shows
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also be a big one. People get
freaked out about mindfulness
and think it’s about whale music
and floating; it’s not at all. It’s
very accessible and something
people should try but it does take
time. As does CBT, exercise and
diet but the big one for me really
is social peer to peer support.
Knowing your loved ones support
you and are there when you need
them, that’s massive. I think that
can’t be underestimated and that
shows you why the stigma is so
damaging.
TVN: Did you take any
medication to help you
overcome your depression,
or did you manage through
therapy, exercise and diet?
At the end of the day I’m not a
GP, or a qualified health care
professional, I’ve heard lots of
information about certain types
of drugs. Certain drugs I abused
under no regulation. I didn’t tell
my GP I self medicated. I took
Benzodiazepine sleeping pills
and they are not sustainable
drugs. If you are going to take
drugs like that you need to be
under careful supervision. In
terms of antidepressants, I was
on them for four/five years and
there is a lot of information out
there, misinformation out there
too, about them and a lot of
fear mongering and warranted
debate about whether medication
works. Unless people have a
qualification in it they shouldn’t
be engaging in that conversation:
it’s dangerous.
TVN: But could you have
battled depression without
taking antidepressants?
I really don’t know. For me it was
a combination of three or four
things that ultimately got me into
the position where I was able
to cope and one of them was
medication. But I wasn’t willing
to just say I’m going to take
medication and expect that to
do everything. I literally jumped
into everything so it’s very hard
to know what affect medication
had on me because I did so many
things as well. I didn’t want to be
on them forever, I just knew that.
TVN: You also took part in a
mental health talk at Electric
Picnic this year...
Yes and this is one of the most
poetic things I’ve heard yet... a
mother at Electric Picnic said that
it’s very difficult for her to see her
son in pain and she feels there is
nothing she can do, that all she
can do is hold him in his fear. And
that’s a beautiful way of putting
it. She doesn’t try to save him or
fix him, she just holds him as he
is, the way he is, and comforts
him. It was a beautiful powerful
thing to say. Sometimes you hear
people just coming up with lines
that take your breath away about
it and that’s the beauty of people
actually talking about it now. It’s
nice to see people in Ireland be
emotional.
TVN: It’s great to see you so
open and emotional...
We’re robots. We’re bred as
robots, we’re expected to act
like robots. Anyone who thinks
they are completely immune
to emotion or pain is the most
naive person on the planet. Pain
cannot be repressed. The more
you repress it the more painful it
becomes and a prime example
of that is how we cope with
grieving in Ireland. We drink, or
we get pissed, or we run away.
You don’t do that with grief –
you cannot outrun it, you live it,
you face it, you accept it. Yes it’s
deeply painful but you cannot
run from these things and as
soon as I realised that, and
turned and faced it, that is when
I started recovering and dealing
with what was going on in my
head. As soon as you realise
that, that’s when you can start
recovering. The more people
speaking about it, the more
people will realise that they need
to engage with their Jeffrey, their
black dog.
TVN: Speaking out on Prime
Time in 2013 to Miriam
O’Callaghan about your own
battle with mental health
was certainly a brave and
inspiring move...
That was hard, that was a
difficult thing to do. The young
man Jack [Kirwan] who spoke
about his suicide attempt that
night proved to be deeply
emotional for everybody in the
studio – he kinda grabbed me
a little bit because you feel that
essentially could have been you
15 years previous. It was just
a very powerful moment and
everyone watching probably felt
massively affected by it. I said to
him: ‘Jack, people walk around
and perceive issues like this
as a weakness.’ I said, ‘I don’t
know any man in this country
who would have the strength to
do what you did tonight.’ Really,
when you break it down, I’ve
no doubt he saved someone’s
life that night and you can’t say
anything more than that.”
“For me it was
a combination
of three or
four things that
got me in the
position where
I was able
to cope”
Physical fitness builds
up mental health
The half-Ironman is
no joke, but they are
having the craic
Looking good, Bressie