CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — He’s a familiar voice on the radio, and now Tim Boyle is speaking out about his own mental health journey. During national mental health awareness month, Boyle is using his story to support Linn County’s fight to end the stigma.
As a Cedar Rapids native and comedian, Boyle is bringing his talents to the Mirrorbox theater with the hopes of shining a light on mental health while also sharing some laughs. Boyle says making people laugh came naturally to him early on.
“I think I was always, if not the class clown, at least one of the funny ones,” Boyle said. “So I fell into that role pretty naturally, pretty early as a kid.”
As a longtime former WMT-AM morning radio host, Tim Boyle is a man of many talents, but those gifts came with their own set of issues.
He says it took him years to realize what caused these issues. “If you go through a childhood trauma, you only really understand it years later when you look around at other families and you become a little wise yourself, you realize, ‘Oh, that was not normal what I went through,’” Boyle said.
On Wednesday, Boyle is teaming up with Linn County’s National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter to raise funds for mental health.
NAMI shared a statement with Iowa’s News Now saying studies show an estimated one in 20 adults will experience serious mental illness, and so having Boyle shed light on this issue is courage. Boyle describes the way things came together for this show as a sort of confluence.
“It all kind of came together,” Boyle said, “I knew it was the month, the month of May. I knew that the Mirrorbox was about to close. I knew I needed to get out in front of an audience. So it all came together and made sense.”
Reflecting back on his life, Boyle says his approach to grief, depression and alcohol addiction was difficult, but he came out on the other side and found peace once he found his purpose.
“What I like to say is Thomas Jefferson had it wrong. The pursuit of happiness is the wrong approach. You pursue a meaningful life and happiness travels in its wake. And I think what did it for me is to find something meaningful about what I’d gone through. And I suppose this is it, making people laugh, but also making them think. And I think that has become my purpose. Therefore, I’m approaching happiness. If not getting there, close,” Boyle said.
Now, Boyle understands where these issues stem from, but it took him a long time to get there.
“I kind of gave up. I committed what I call passive suicide. I would never take any action, but I just quit taking care of myself. And more and more I began to realize, ‘Wow, this isn’t healthy,’” Boyle said.
And after coming out on the other side of his battle with mental health, Boyle hopes his work helps people feel seen.
“First of all, you’re not alone. You’re not alone, you’re not irrational, you’re not crazy. These are real, genuine feelings, and we all need to figure out ways to get a handle on those feelings. So I think talking to anybody helps. Talking to someone in a similar situation, talking to a professional, talking to members of your family,” Boyle said.
If you, or anyone you know, is struggling with mental health you can call or text 988 at any time.