“There is still a barrier for men when it comes to talking about mental health.” Jack Ellis is lying on his living room floor. He’s put his back out and the benefit of the now obligatory Zoom interview is that he doesn’t need to squeeze himself uncomfortably into an office chair.

In the wake of a global pandemic that changed how we live and work irrevocably, the barriers between the personal and the professional have fundamentally shifted. For while the rhetoric of bringing your ‘whole self to work’ was in full swing long prior to the pandemic; the reality for many in the creative industries was one of attempting to mask their true self in order to fit into someone else's version of what success looks like.

Yet what if by putting your best foot forward in the workplace you were actually holding yourself back? Either by not addressing mental health issues, or simply by virtue of expending energy that could be much better utilised on producing the best work of your life, by pretending to be something or someone you are not.

As we emerge from what we hope will be the worst of the pandemic, questions, concerns and anxieties remain. Even prior to the pandemic there was a grave disparity between the high number of men who die from suicide and the low number of men who seek treatment for depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges. It is not hyperbole to claim that silence kills. 

Breaking the silence

So how do we move forward? This is the question posed by Men’s Health Week 2021 (14th to 20th June) and one answered with grace and honesty by NABS Ambassador Jack Ellis. Ellis, who is a  Senior Account Director in the automotive division at Haymarket Media Group, hopes by speaking up about his own anxiety he can help others feel that they don't need to suffer in silence. 

“The reason I want to talk about mental health is I want to effect change,” he explains, adding: “I am 38 and I was 36 when I was diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety. When I was growing up, ADHD meant an unruly kid. I spent most of my school life outside the classroom.”

The past two years have been a revelation. Facing the challenges of panic attacks and turning to drink and drugs; it was a supportive line manager that encouraged him to recognise his issues. While his private healthcare provided the path to diagnosis and medical support. 

For, while many of us across the industry have taken part in hugely valuable Mental Health First Aid training; the brutal reality is that many employees are being sent to GPs who lack the capacity and funding to provide the right support in a timely manner. 

For Ellis, the experience of going to the Priory – followed by taking voluntary furlough and coming off antidepressants – was a ‘miserable time’. Yet, he is refreshingly open about the role of medication in his life. “I want to work in a world where I can talk about my medication, in the same way you would with any other illness. I want to normalise medication,” he explains.

This normalization involves speaking out. As he says: “We all have such different brains and I evangelize about this stuff because I am talking about a very vulnerable moment in our lives.”

Flexing for success

Notably, in the midst of a media ecosystem in which the obsession with the ‘great return to the office’ remains at the top of the business agenda, regardless of whether it drives performance, profitability, or that less-mentioned but nonetheless important metric of people’s happiness - Ellis has a nuanced approach.

For what the industry has within its grasp in the wake of the global pandemic is a unique opportunity to create space; both virtually or physically. If offices and working structures of the past were primarily designed for neurotypical extroverts with no caring responsibilities, the post-pandemic rebound offers the industry to do things differently.

Smart companies are thinking more critically about when, where and how people work best. “One of the most practical things you can do is redesign the office,” explains Ellis “I want workplaces to understand that there are some people who find silence deafening.”

There are also fundamental questions to be asked of all employees that are often lacking from the recruitment process; how do you create your best work? What are the conditions you need to thrive?

Ellis points to the fact that his ADHD can make him hyper-focused - from doing a sprint of work at 3am, to finding the dark corners of Advertising Week Europe’s Picturehouse venue a spark for focus and ideas. The idea that people have their best ideas and opportunities to succeed by sitting in the same chair in the same office at the same time five days a week is nothing short of ludicrous.