Love Island star Dr Alex George has urged young people struggling with their mental health to ask for help during a visit to Fife College.
Addressing an in-person and virtual audience of 500 students on Monday, the former A&E doctor said the stigma around mental health is still a “huge barrier” to support.
Alex, 31, who appeared on ITV2’s Love Island in 2018 and is the UK government’s youth mental health ambassador, lost his 19-year-old brother to suicide in 2020.
Speaking at Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline, Alex said: “I would have moved heaven and earth to help him if he said he was struggling,
“But ultimately none of us knew. The stigma is still a huge barrier to support.
“We need to remove the stigma and just encourage people to ask for help when they’re struggling”.
Although the doctor has long-campaigned for mental health online, he said the death of his brother Llyr lit a fire in his belly to make a difference.
The event marks the beginning of Alex’s tour of schools and colleges across the UK during Children’s Mental Health Week.
Speaking to The Courier after the conference, Alex said bullying in schools is a leading cause of mental health issues in young people.
He said: “I was bullied at school myself for about two or three years and it impacts your emotional and mental wellbeing hugely, and actually it impacts your learning.
“Seeing and witnessing violence and bullying is very damaging in itself.
“For anyone on the bus, or for anyone that’s in school, that sees name-calling, it damages them as well, because no one likes to see anyone get hurt.
“We talk an awful lot about the victim, but we don’t talk about perpetrators – why do perpetrators do it?
Shocking videos of school bullying in Fife emerge online
“Some of it might come from a place of malice, but a lot of it comes from their struggles being externalised.
“Are we supporting people’s mental health at school properly? Are we considering what might be happening in their homes?”
His comments come after shocking footage of a schoolgirl being assaulted at Waid Academy emerged on social media.
And more recently, a Bell Baxter High School pupil was hit and kicked repeatedly while travelling home on the bus – another attack which was caught on camera and shared online.
The incidents have raised questions about the issue of pupil-on-pupil violence and how it is being handled by schools.
What advice would Alex give victims of school bullying?
He said: “Don’t face it alone. There is no reason for anyone to face bullying alone.
“Don’t feel ashamed. I went through two or three years of shame before I realised that it wasn’t me that was the problem – it was the people who were bullying me.
“You have to talk to the people around you – that could be your friends or family.
“You also need to speak to the teachers. The teachers are under so much pressure, they don’t necessarily understand what’s happening.
“You have a right to feel safe and happy.”
Alex visits Fife primary schools to talk about mental health
Alex, who is campaigning for ‘early support hubs’ across the UK, revealed he has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a bid to get funding support.
The doctor also discussed his recent ADHD diagnosis, as well as his decision to give up alcohol for his own mental health.
He visited Saint Columba’s primary school in Cupar and Methilhill Primary Cchool in Leven on the same day, where he discussed the importance of “mental health toolkits” with children.
Alex’s tour follows the publication of his book ‘A Better Day: Your Positive Mental Health Handbook’.
Conversation