Mid-life Men: the mental health podcast
Have you ever felt like you’ve become lost in your own life?
Many men struggle to talk about their problems and mental health and grew up believing that to do can be perceived as a sign of weakness or failure. There is also a lack of open discussion in society around men’s mental health, especially aimed at mid-life men. As a result, at times many men can feel alone and lost in their own lives.
In this podcast series, I talk to mid-life men about their stories; the challenges, the turning points, and the support received to help them find their way so that others who may be suffering in silence or don’t know what to do next, realise that they are not alone and there is help available.
Stories will cover a whole range of challenges faced by mid-life men mainly relating to the causes of mental health issues including feelings of isolation, depression, job dissatisfaction, addiction, PTSD, and long-term illness.
The podcast is NOT a replacement for professional support and we signpost to organisations and their contact details by episode.
If you have a story you would like to share or any feedback on the podcasts, please email me: midlifemen01@gmail.com.
Mid-life Men: the mental health podcast
Whatever I Do, It’s Never Enough, with Mordy Gottlieb
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In this episode, we talk to Mordy Gottlieb, a men’s therapist whose work - and life - has been shaped by one quiet, corrosive belief: “Whatever I do, it’s never enough.”
Mordy shares how perfection became his survival strategy as a child and how striving without self-compassion led to years of numbing, self-criticism, and chasing relief through behaviours that slowly escalated rather than resolved the pain.
What makes this conversation different is its honesty about how these patterns actually form, starting with food, moving into pornography and other forms of escape, and eventually colliding with midlife reality when effort stops working, and avoidance stops providing relief.
Rather than framing men’s behaviours as addictions or failures, Mordy explains them as attempts to regulate unbearable internal pressure and why insight alone rarely changes anything. The real shift, he argues, comes through experience, practice, and safe connection, especially with other men.
This episode also challenges some uncomfortable truths: why being “strong” often means being emotionally absent, why vulnerability isn’t just talking, and why many men feel unseen even inside long-term relationships they’ve spent years sustaining.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
- How the belief “I’m never enough” gets wired into boys early on
- Why perfectionism feels productive but leads to exhaustion and shame
- How numbing behaviours escalate quietly over time
- Why midlife is often the moment men can’t outrun themselves anymore
- The limits of talk therapy and why knowing why isn’t the same as changing
- How experiential therapy helps men rehearse real-world change
- Why men often heal faster in groups than one-to-one
- What vulnerability actually looks like in daily life (including learning to say no)
- Small, realistic ways to introduce play, presence, and self-permission back into life
Why this episode matters:
Because if you’ve ever felt that no matter how much you give - at work, at home, in relationships - it’s still not enough, this conversation will feel uncomfortably familiar. Mordy doesn’t offer fixes or slogans. He offers language for something many men have lived with for decades without naming.
To find out more Mordy, visit his website: www.thegamechangergroup.com.
