Bressie speaks ot Donegal roots as he prepares to take 'Where Is My Mind Live' to the county

‘Where Is My Mind’ Live will see Bressie in conversation with Donegal Tik Tok star Eric Roberts when it takes to the stage in An Grianan Theatre on Saturday, October 28.

Speaking to the Journal, Bressie told how he is very familiar with the county, as his grandparents ‘on both sides are Donegal’.

"My dad is Bundoran and I have family from Rossknowlagh. There are also definitely connections to Carndonagh, so I know the area well.”

He added how North West audiences will get to experience a ‘funny and irreverent’ live show when they attend ‘Where Is My Mind Live.’

"For me, a live podcast has to incorporate everything I love – music, the spoken word, mindfulness and chat. People expect, when you’re doing a podcast called ‘Where is My Mind?’ it’s going to be intense, but in fact, it’s not at all. It’s quite funny and irreverent and I think a lot of people take that away. I do talk about mental health, but it’s just talking about life, really. There’s that and a bit of music and we have an amazing guest in Eric Roberts. He has this energy of being really emotionally intelligent, but very accessible and funny and he’s a great lad. I’ve been watching him for a while and reached out to him.”

Bressie said that with the podcast itself does take on serious topics, ‘but the thing about this is that it’s about being a human being’.

"It doesn’t have to be heavy and intense and we seem to be able to deal with the stuff we avoid in a much more accessible way. Because you’ll overwhelm people, every those who are interested in it, if you come in hard and intense with this. You have to meet them where they’re at and it has to be very relatable.”

He continued: “It’s an enjoyable, heartwarming show, that people get a lot out of, whether it’s them or supporting a loved on. We take a really nice approach on how we can take better care of our heads in the headmelting chaos of the modern world.”

Bressie outlined how he believes the stigma around mental health in Ireland has lessened but that we ‘still have a long way to go in relation to speaking about more serious mental health issues, like Bipolar and Schixophrenia etc’

".I think we’re ok with stress and anxiety – it feels safe for us, but if we really want to move on and move the stigma on, then we really have to be comfortable talking about the other end of the spectrum people find themselves in.”

While socially, the stigma has somewhat eroded, Bressie outlined how systematically, systems around mental health and illness in Ireland ‘are just not good enough’.

"My PHD is revolved around that side of things and it’s hard to bring that to the stage, as its very passionate and political for me. You’re not going to change things by throwing shit at the problem and you have to look at what the potential solution is for this utterly dysfunctional system we have and to be fair, I don’t see the system for mental health, especially for children, that effective anywhere in the world, as we keep adopting a purely medical model to treat children. And, if we keep doing that, we’re not getting to the crux of why they’re feeling what they’re feeling.”

Bressie added how Ireland ‘spent more on mental health in the 80s than we do now’.

"We’re spending less and less at a time when there has never been more dialogue and it’s not acceptable.”

Tickets for the show are out now. See www.angrianan.com