📸After Dr Alex George found fame on Love Island in 2018, strangers would stop him in the street. Yet something changed quite starkly last July, when his younger brother Llŷr took his own life.
🗣️“People talk to me a lot less,” says Dr George
Thread 🧵
telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…
🗣️“People talk to me a lot less,” says Dr George
Thread 🧵
telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…
He noticed it almost immediately after his bereavement, which came out of the blue.
The day after Llŷr’s death, a friend took him for a walk on the beach in his native Carmarthenshire.
“It was like everyone just turned around and walked away and didn’t know what to say”
The day after Llŷr’s death, a friend took him for a walk on the beach in his native Carmarthenshire.
“It was like everyone just turned around and walked away and didn’t know what to say”
Dr George, who was appointed UK Youth Mental Health Ambassador in February, understands this impulse: the squeamishness that means we send cards when someone dies.
But he is a firm believer that talking is vitally important, no matter how difficult the subject
But he is a firm believer that talking is vitally important, no matter how difficult the subject
“I probably had anxiety when I was 15, 16. I’m now 30 and I haven’t really dealt with it until now,” he says.
“I [recently] decided to access medication because it’s a hard time. I’m still dealing with grief and also the pressure of this role. It’s not easy”
“I [recently] decided to access medication because it’s a hard time. I’m still dealing with grief and also the pressure of this role. It’s not easy”
He’s also had plenty of experience of dealing with mental ill health in his job, although not everyone realises how often this lies behind what brings people to A&E.
“One in three of the people I see, if not more, are here because of mental illness,” he says
“One in three of the people I see, if not more, are here because of mental illness,” he says
Tonight, he fronts a new BBC Children in Need documentary, Dr Alex: Our Young Mental Health Crisis, which follows the journeys of young people across the UK who are living with mental health issues
"Before I leave, Dr George shows me the tattoo he had done on his wrist"
🌊It’s a wave, for Llŷr, whose name meant “God of the sea” in Welsh.
“It was quite painful,” he says. “I was quite brave.”
"I don’t doubt him at all." writes Rosa Silverman
🌊It’s a wave, for Llŷr, whose name meant “God of the sea” in Welsh.
“It was quite painful,” he says. “I was quite brave.”
"I don’t doubt him at all." writes Rosa Silverman
Read the full interview here ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…
telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
