In episode 244 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Luke Loughlin.
Luke is the Co-Founder of Men United, a platform which seeks to empower men to reclaim control of their wellbeing by nurturing their mind, body, and soul.
The platform was set up by its Founder Troy Colmer, who then befriended Luke and asked him to come on board.
Troy set up the platform when a friend of his disclosed his mental health story to him and he saw the power of that conversation and wanted to provide that to other men in Canada.
In this episode, we discuss the story of Men United and what gap they want to provide in the men’s mental health conversation in Canada.
For Luke’s mental health, he was diagnosed with ADHD and a learning disability when he was nine years old.
Like many boys who exhibited ADHD traits, especially from working-class backgrounds, he was often labelled as a ‘troublemaker’ in school.
Luke was then sexually abused as a teenager by the mother of his then-girlfriend when he was around 15/16 years old and was also raped by her on one occasion.
He came out about the abuse four years later to his parents. Unfortunately, when he went to the police about it, he was shut down and ignored.
That betrayal, combined with the abuse caused him to spiral. He began drinking excessively, developed an addiction and began sabotaging his future romantic relationships, friendships and relationships with his family members.
He tried to get sober in 2019 but unfortunately relapsed and tried to take his own life.
From there, he began a recovery journey, accessed therapy, worked on his attachment style and has taken him to where he is today as part of Men United.
We discuss all of these experiences, why male survivors of sexual abuse, especially ones abused by female perpetrators continue to be ignored in the wider conversation and the dark side of mental illness.
As always, #itsokaytovent
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