Aaron Herrington has openly discussed his issues with drinking and mental health in past interviews, and is a key voice in the Ben Raemers SMiLe project. But he has never gone on the record about his own mental health diagnosis before this new interview published by Parade this afternoon.

I got diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder. A lot of people have general anxiety, but this is more of a feeling of always being anxious rather than feeling a little off. I take medication for that because it’s too intense. I’m Type 2 Bipolar, but I am in the process of getting a different diagnosis. The more I research the more, I guess, soul searching I do, the more therapy, means that I’m leaning more towards Borderline Personality Disorder. Which is also stigmatised, people often think borderline is similar to schizophrenia – but it doesn’t mean you have multiple personalities, it’s more having issues with relationships and issues communicating with people.

I think the term ‘mental health’, it’s not a negative term, but I think it’s a term that should be used a little lightly. I worry that people now are like ‘I don’t sleep well, I have a mental health issue’… yes and no. I don’t ever want to discourage or discredit how people are feeling, everyone’s feelings are valid. It’s only been the past 30 to 40 years where mental health has really been considered seriously from a medical point of view. The more people, and men, talk about it, the more it will change the perception of the word and it won’t be seen so negatively or so intensely.

With mental health being such an important topic that can be difficult to talk about, you have to applaud Aaron for candidly discussing his own struggles publicly. Read the entire interview here.

Image Via Jon Coulthard / Parade