About Me

Wow this is kind of scary opening up to the Internet about my past and struggles with the mind. I suppose I will start with where I am at now! At the moment I am a father of 3 healthy boys and happily married to the most wonderful wife. I have a rewarding and perhaps slightly stressful job working in the electrical industry.

I am in a good place these days but the road to now has been tough and bumpy. Of course I am not cured I don't believe I can be completely fixed for ever. But I have routines and things in place that keep me on an even keel.

I have a really wonderful family around me and this just further proves that anxiety and depression don't discriminate based on your wealth, prior happiness or outward appearances.

I am nearly 33 years old and started to show symptoms of anxiety and depression back in 2004 aged 23. At the time I had a very stressful job and spent months travelling internationally away from my wife and kids. My problems first surfaced as a result of this isolation from home and a developed fear of flying.

At the time I didn't even know I was poorly in my mind. I thought I had a virus and even convinced myself I had heart problems. What I had started to suffer at the time was the beginning of panic attacks and severe anxiety. It has been an upward learning curve since that point. Now I am armed with over a decade of knowledge amassed with the sole purpose of beating this illness for the long term!

Over the years I have suffered from sever insomnia, deep depression and anxiety that debilitated me to the point of fearing leaving the house. I once went over 7 days with just 3 hours sleep and as most people reading this will know sleep deprivation just makes rational thinking even harder.

I have been on a raft of anti depressants some have helped greatly others made things much worse. But a point I would make to anyone who is struggling is talk to your family and GP as soon as you can. Don't be afraid of the medication and also don't expect it to fix you overnight or on its own. I view it as part of the package to make me well with other lifestyle and learnt changes.

But I couldn't possibly explain everything in one about me page! I hope my posts help others who have or who are struggling at the moment. The key thing I always focus on myself and say to others is that things will get better. You can be well again. It won't happen within days but gradually over a period of weeks you can recover and then stay there!

I have been medication free and symptom free for over 3 years now. A relatively short time I know and I still have stressful episodes that I handle poorly. But hey who doesn't, that's pretty normal :)