I am 34 years old, and I have battled depression and anxiety for about 18/19 years. I have spent long periods in depression, and experienced periods where I have felt OK. However, in the last 12 months or so depression, anxiety and panic disorder took over my life. I struggled to focus on anything thing for any period of time, from work to going to the gym, or even just a shopping trip.

“Sickness can surely take the mind where minds can’t usually go,” proclaimed rock behemoths The Who. Listening to this as a young man empowered me to acknowledge and embrace my own mental health demons, which are many. The reason I wanted to blog about this difficult subject (hard for me to write about and hard for you to read) is because it’s so important to talk about. Suicide is the leading killer amongst UK men under 50! This equates to a man taking his own life every 2 hours.