Based in Bulford, Rackham served in the army between 2007 and 2012, which included a tour of Afghanistan in 2011.
He told BBC Radio Bristol while he had a few counselling sessions after leaving the military, he struggled with his mental health and later tried to take his own life.
Describing his head as “spinning”, Rackham said at the time he was “struggling”.
“No one knew what was going on inside my head,” he said.
According to the Office for National Statistics, external, there were 6,190 suicides registered in England and Wales in 2024, around three quarters of them were men.
Andy Barton, from Andy’s Man Club, a male anti-suicide charity, said there continues to be a “stigma” when it comes to men talking about low moods.
“Men say they are showing weakness if they do talk to people outside the groups, and lots of people think they are a burden on somebody if they do,” he said.
Rackham said opening up to people was something he had struggled with, especially as he wanted “to be that hard man”.
“When you’re a scaffolder you don’t want to bother anyone…in reality you need to actually talk to people,” he said.
“My mate rang me up after he found out [that he tried to take his own life] and said he’d rather I cried on his shoulder than him cry at my funeral,” he added.