“I was finding that I was waking up in the morning and my partner was going to work and I was just shutting the curtains and staying inside all day,” he said.
Fast forward to now and he has been given a new lease of life with his building apprenticeship, picking up the Central South Island Master Builders Apprentice of the Year along the way.
After completing a degree majoring in marketing and design at the University of Otago he started his own software development business called Latch Digital.
“I was working 12 hours a day sometimes just staring at a computer screen and that was pretty tough on the mental health.”
He decided he needed a change after five years in business and started his building apprenticeship.
He said he has noticed a massive improvement in his overall well-being since doing so.
“The whole thing of seeing the fruits of your labour and getting to stand back at the end of the day and look at your work, that has really helped me.”
He said his workplace, Premium Homes, has also been a massive source of support.
“It’s open enough to sit down at smoko and tell the guys anything.
“We have beer and pizza once a month and 60 per cent of the time there is a discussion about mental health.”
He thought it was important that more men opened up about their feelings.
“If blokes are talking to other blokes about stuff it just opens stuff up.
“It’s so important for males to talk about this kind of stuff because we tend to put this whole sort of facade up.”]
