About 20 years ago, Manoj Dias was trapped in what he calls โa wheel of sufferingโ working in the finance industry in Melbourne, Australia.
โIโd wake at 6am, be in the gym by 6.30am and in the office an hour later, ready for a 12-hour shift,โ says Dias by video call from New York, where he is now based.
And forget about a regular diet: his meals were usually just a few very strong coffees. โMy cortisol and adrenaline would have been going through the roof.โ
Mental health was not discussed back then, he says. Australian men in particular dealt with stress by heading to the pub for a few post-work drinks, and โjust soldiering onโ.
โIt started a pattern, or a wheel of suffering, as I call it. You donโt get much sleep, you feel stressed throughout the day, you get anxious, you go home, you donโt sleep because youโre stressed and anxious โ and the cycle repeats.โ