Call for Lancashire men to ask themselves key question to check their mental health

And a South Ribble borough councillor is encouraging men to ask a particularly searching poser of themselves in order to bring any hidden mental health problems out into the open.

Stephen Thurlbourn has made the plea to mark International Men's Day.

He knows from personal experience how easy it is for past traumas and present problems to collide and he wants to help men identify underlying issues in a controlled way - so as to avoid a potential catastrophe further down the line.

“I was just ploughing on with life, I didn't have any inkling that something was wrong,” Stephen recalls of the time just before he first became aware of the fragility of his own mental health three years ago.

“But somewhere along the way, you do start to realise that things are not right - maybe it’s mood swings or just you not being you any more.

“At that point, you need to ask yourself if you need help - but you also need to speak to someone close to you and ask them outright, ‘Am I different now?’

“That’s what I asked my wife - and she said I was.”

It was a tough message to hear and remains a difficult moment to recount. However, Stephen knows that had he not asked the question, he would never have received the help that he now recognises he so desperately needed.