Bear Grylls opens up about his struggles and launches initiative to boost men's mental health

While advocating the need to pursue mental health and well-being, people subconsciously cause discrimination. While many women have been open to speaking about it and taking the necessary measures for their mental health, men are still not given as much confidence and encouragement. Though unintentional, several men have been keeping their issues within themselves due to the worldly definition of being “a man.” However, many role models are changing that perspective. Bear Grylls, one of the strongest and toughest adventurers and survivalists, recently opened up about his mental health, per The Independent.

Grylls decided to share his story with an incident that happened in the late 90s. Before the adventurer came on to television, he had gone skydiving. However, things didn’t work out as expected and when his parachute failed, Grylls went 16000 feet down, wondering what happened next. After breaking 3 vertebrae, he found himself in a “dark” place. “That accident was definitely a dark, difficult time for me at a young age. Things that I had taken for granted, like my health, my job and my skills, were suddenly gone. I had a major reset in my life the way you hope is never going to happen,” Grylls revealed. However, he took his trials as a challenge and with all the thoughts in his mind, continued to persist.

Two years after his fall, Grylls became one of the youngest people to have climbed Mount Everest. He recalled, “[The accident] was why I became so focused on Everest.” He added that for him, the challenge was an “extreme form of therapy” amid trauma which he felt “ill-equipped” to deal with. Adding to his powerful statement, he said, “It’s not a duplicatable model to say you have to take a one in six chance of dying to be healed.” Ever since his journey with his mind, Grylls decided to become a role model for fellow men to speak out and get hold of their mental health to avoid being in the dark.

Ever since, he has released books compiling his stories and life lessons, such as “Mind Fuel,” “Never Give Up,” and so on. The resilient man is today an ambassador for mental health and has taken several other steps to ensure that the latter is no more something to be ashamed about or hidden. Together with his team, Grylls has come up with a mental fitness app called Mettle, which aims to help men struggling with mental health. In an Instagram video, Grylls shared a gist of the thought process behind the app. Explaining the meaning of the word “Mettle,” Grylls said, “This is a word that I’ve always loved. If you look it up, it refers to a person’s ability to cope with difficulty, challenge and change.”

The adventurer further said, “Some of these men, at the moment, struggle with the storms of life. Everyone’s under pressure in modern life.” He also mentioned that men find it harder to open up and talk about their struggles and that the app would help them be at the “front foot of life.” Grylls revealed, ‘“There are a lot of incredible mental health apps out there, but they tend to be quite soft or female-oriented.” He, therefore, was inspired to create the app for the “forgotten demographic.” He hopes the app will “equip men when the storms of life come.”