Bressie talks mental health and 'Vitamin P'

EVEN though his work can be intense, mental health advocate Niall (Bressie) Breslin says that he doesn’t forget about his dose of ‘Vitamin P’ - one that must be taken daily.

Bressie, who co-founded the mental health charity Lust for Life, is currently working on his PhD about mental health interventions in Ireland and preparing for his live podcast tour.

“I suppose what I do sometimes is intense. I've been intense. I think people should realise that's not all I do, you know? But I really need to not always be surrounded by the intensity of the stuff that I do,” says Bressie.

“That's one thing I think people seem to think, ‘But that's what you do, so that's what you must be like’. My therapist at the time called it Vitamin P, or vitamin playfulness,” he laughs.

This autumn, he will bring his podcast, Where is My Mind?, where he feels the most comfortable - on stage. 

As he has been a musician his whole life, Bressie wanted to bring his podcast, Where is My Mind?, on stage. For the live tour, people can expect spoken words pieces, insight into Bressie’s own journey with mental health, audience interaction, as well as special guests.

After doing his MSc in mindfulness, the musician and mental health advocated felt that what he had been learning might be useful to others. That’s when he decided to start, Where is My Mind?

“I’d gone through my own 15 years journey with my mental health, and I wanted to take this information and make it accessible for people and make them understand how they could approach their minds in a slightly different way. Take the academic stuff and turn it into something digestible,” he explains. 

Now, for his PhD, he is looking back at what Ireland did in terms of mental health interventions over the last 150 years.

“The reality is that they haven't created effective mental health systems. So rather than just give out about a system that doesn't work, we have to try and figure out why it doesn't work. My hypothesis for my PhD is that I believe early preventative models are where we should be focusing.”

Bressie believes the systems in place are not stepping up to support those need it, particularly younger people.

“That's where the big focus has to be. Our health systems and our mental health systems are really not fit for purpose, and they haven't been ever. We have to use this as an opportunity to actually figure out what does a world leading mental health system look like,” he says.

According to him, the first step is to admit that politically, “we are just not good enough.”

“I think the child and adolescent health services, we've seen the reports over the last six months, we don't have to pretend that it's okay. This is going to take time, and this requires an entirely different approach to how mental health is actually supported. We've got to look at providing access to therapy and psychologists and assessment in school settings and community settings. But we have to train the psychologist and the psychotherapist, we don't have enough of them - and if we do have them, they're leaving the country,” Bressie continues.

While working on his podcast, Bessie has chatted with quite an array of guests, including Deepak Chopra, Moby, Edith Ever, Adam Clayton and Jameela Jamil - to name a few. Is there an episode that stood out?

“I've had big names on it, and they've been great and you know, I've really enjoyed the conversations. The most powerful podcast we've done was probably where we talked about men who were just from all different ages and different walks of life. There's so much focus on masculinity and the problems of masculinity and the, the masculinity crisis and toxic masculinity. I know really good men that need to be heard. There was one guy, Eddie, who was in his seventies and opened up this huge conversation about his own life and the abuses he would've faced from his own father. And he was like, I’m not passing that on to my children or grandchildren. It was a very powerful episode that I think a lot of people really kind of grappled towards and just really found very helpful.”

In the past, some people Bressie worked with gave him terrible advice.

“I used to have these people I worked with who used to say things like ‘when you're resting, you're wasting your time’. Anyone who tells you online or face to face that you can't rest, or you can't sit and do nothing from time to time is talking nonsense,” he says.

But ultimately, the musician values his rest.

“It's really important to sometimes sit on your ass, do nothing and not feel guilty about it. I think that's the worst piece of advice I've been given, ‘don’t rest’.  No, I will value my rest because it allows me to do great things when I am pushing myself.”

Speaking of rest, Bressie needs “some elements of sun” after being stuck in Ireland all summer while working on his PhD.

“I haven’t been on holiday. My studies have kind of really just taken over. So I've been stuck in Ireland now for every wet, windy, horrible day. I need to see some elements of sun,” he laughs.

“I actually kayaked the length of the River Shannon for my charity in July, which was an amazing experience, but it was the toughest thing I've ever done in my life, with the wind and the rain and all that.”

Bressie co-founded Lust for Life about eight years ago. The charity focuses on education and mental health, and how to support children.

“We’re in over a thousand primary schools now and with our programme. My goal by the end of 2024, is for us to be in every single primary school in the country and we're now focusing on secondary schools, so we're developing programs. My ultimate dream at the charity is to provide mental health education solution from first class to leaving cert.”

There is a song that emulates everything Bressie believes in when it comes to mental health - Anthem, by Leonard Cohen. 

"There's a lyric from a song by Leonard Cohen that really kind of emulates everything I think about when it comes to what I wish I knew. 'There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in'. That really resonates with me because humans, we are flawed, brilliant, stupid, clever and we are bad. We need to stop holding each other to these impossible standards and morality, we do mess up sometimes. We need to make space for redemption in people, and I think the modern world is getting more and more crucifying of people. We want to see people thrown under buses and failing. We want to turn on them, and it's just not nice," Bressie says.

Laced with creativity and fascinating conversations, Bressie’s live podcast tour will make a stop at the glór in Ennis, on Friday, November 3.