In support of World Mental Health Day, Port Vale midfielder Cristian Montano sat down with us to share his own experiences with mental health and discuss how anyone can be effected and how essential it is to speak to someone.

Port Vale Football Club are proud to support such an important cause and spread the knowledge that it’s ok to not be ok, and that anybody suffering from mental health issues should not feel alone.

The EFL have been partners with the charity organisation known as Mind for the last two years, working with the organisation in order to help provide everyone with the advice and support they need.

Mind, which was established in 1946 is focussed on making sure nobody feels alone and provides a number of services to help towards achieving their aim.

Mind have the message of: ‘We won't give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.’

If you or anyone you know are in need of support Mind is a fantastic organisation that will do everything they can to provide help and support. 

Cristian Montano shared the message that people from all walks of life can be effected.

He said: “A lot of people feel like just because you do play professional football, or you’re a successful person in life, you’re not going to have any struggles, any down times, but it’s part of life.”

Montano spoke about when he was hit by issues and tried to combat them on his own, and was taken to an extremely low point where he felt like he had “lost his life”.

He discussed how he tried to cope with his mental state and the effects it had on his loved ones, and spoke of how impactful kindness to others can be and how damaging negative comments and actions can be on people’s lives, whether in person or on social media. 

A key message shared by Montano was how much speaking to someone and opening up about what you’re going through can help deal with the situation, as you shouldn’t have to try and deal with everything alone.

He said: “It felt a lot better [speaking to his family] due to the fact that it was just me talking to myself all the time, I was getting all different voices and didn’t know what to do with myself.

“When I was able to stand up and be able to recognise what I was doing to my family, be able to recognise what I was doing to me especially and then be able to get all my emotions out, be able to basically open up and feel free, it helped me massively.

“When I realised that I could speak to someone, I spoke to them, I told them how I felt, it was a relief, it was like a shadow just lifted off me.”

That message of knowing that you should not feel alone and that talking to someone can have such a positive impact is central to Montano’s story, and you can watch the full interview with Cristian Montano below and see how he has reached a point where he now feels as though he is in a better place and once again happy.