Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles opens up about mental health

Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles has opened up about a life-changing loss he faced as a teenager and his own struggles he’s faced since.

Reuben Styles, one half of Aussie electronic music group Peking Duk, has opened up about losing one of his best friends to depression at age 17.

“For the rest of my life I’ll never learn why,” he told news.com.au. “But slowly I’ll learn little bits more as to how (he came to feel like that), I suppose.”

Styles says the death of his friend came as a shock, and one that hasn’t become any clearer over the years since high school.

“I guess one of the thing I did learn was how invisible (depression) is, even to his best friends and his family,” he said.

“It wasn’t even like he wasn’t attending any social things with us, it was just so remarkably invisible.

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“I wish I knew more about why I lost one of my best friends,” Styles continued. “I do know it was pretty heavily ingrained in our culture to hold that false front of ‘nah, we’re tough, we can get through anything’.

“Showing any sign of sadness is a sign of weakness. I’m guessing a lot of that contributed to why he wouldn’t tell us what was going on.”

While the loss may have left Styles confused, it did lead him to take mental health more seriously. In that last couple of years, it even spurred on his new music project, You’re Only Great Always (YOGA).

“I was writing a lot of songs through 2019 that I knew weren’t fit for Peking Duk,” Styles explained.

“I also realised I also wanted an opportunity to make the project a bit more focused around mental health.”

‘The sooner we realise the mind is something like a car, the better’ - Reuben Styles. Picture: supplied

Through songs, music videos and sharing real stories of people struggling with their mental health, YOGA aims to change the stigma Australian culture can still place on mental health, particularly when it comes to getting help.

“(My friend) always put on a very shiny front, and I think that’s something which really happens a lot in Australia,” Styles said.

“People will get told to put a smile on their dial, that it’s weak to look upset — so they want to appear ‘strong’.

“When people are immediately told that their feelings don’t matter, I think that makes it a lot worse.”

With YOGA well under way, it made sense for Styles to team up with Australians For Mental Health and the group’s new campaign asking for better access to mental health support, Holding Out For Help.

“I was absolutely in from the get-go,” explained Styles.

The campaign, started by mental health activist Chris Raine, is petitioning the federal government for three main changes to Australia’s mental healthcare system: to create better physical and digital mental health hubs, to dramatically increase the number of mental health professionals, and to fix the incredibly long waiting period between people realising they need help and when they can actually get in to see a psychologist.

Styles had his own experience of not being able to get professional help for his mental health during the pandemic.

“I wanted to see (a psychologist) about a year ago,” Styles shared. “I was struggling with a few things and I put my name down.

“After a few months I’d gotten through it with the help of friends, but it would have been so much quicker had I just been able to go and talk to a professional.

”Lucky for me I got through it, but there’s got to be cases out there where (fixing wait times) will save lives.”

According to AMH, the Covid-related lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 have added a six percentage point increase in mental illness in Australia. Picture: supplied.

If there’s one thing Styles hopes YOGA and Holding Out For Help can achieve, it’s to help Australians feel like it’s OK to express their feelings — whether that be to a psychologist, a stranger or their friends.

“All I can say now is just don’t make it strange to be sad, and don’t put on any false fronts,” he said.

“Get together with someone and decompress, it doesn’t have to be an immediate friend. I find it really hard, actually, to talk about things with immediate friends. You’ve been friends for so long and you’ve already got an established dialogue. So I find it really easy sometimes to go and chat to almost randoms.”

Finally, Styles hopes that Australia can move on from the stigma of getting health and realise that seeing a psychiatrist is helpful, even if you’re not currently struggling.

“There’s a stigma (around getting help) and I have no idea why. No one wants to be labelled the crazy person, but I think it’s more crazy not wanting to be seeing a psychologist.

“I feel like almost everyone in the country could benefit from a weekly psych appointment.”

Originally published as Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles opens up about mental health