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Friday, January 13, 2017 7:59am ET by  
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Olly Alexander: 'There's a stigma around mental health'

Singer Olly Alexander, of Years & Years fame, stopped by BBC Radio 1's The Surgery this week and gave listeners some pointers on managing mental health problems.

The star, who struggled with bulimia for a number of years, explained that giving yourself permission to be open about personal problems can be helpful: 

“We all know what it’s like living in the modern world with social media and with friendship groups, there’s a lot of stigma attached to saying you’re not feeling as great as you should be, whether it’s in a workplace environment or in a school... [Celebrities] don’t ever want to tell anyone how to live their life, but the more we can share our experiences, the more we can help each other out.”

He went onto confess that one genuinely good side to the internet is the facts that people find online communities where they feel comfortable and a sense of belonging, which helps them to talk about their issues:

“I’ve seen some amazing communities on Tumblr that are so supportive of each other and Years And Years fans that find each other, and they’ve really learned to support each other, and talked about their mental health issues with each other. That’s been a really positive side of [the internet].”

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Watch Olly talk about mental health below:

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