The more honesty and openness there is about mental health – especially men’s mental health – the better for everyone.
When people open up like that, it have provoke a really powerful response. Such is the case with Doug Leddin, a young man from Dublin, who recently posted a very personal account of his own tribulations with mental health to his Facebook page.
In the video, he describes the difference between the life he led in front of his friends and family, and the torture that was going on inside his own mind.
The video has shared over 24,000 times over the past week, proving that it has struck a chord about mental health problems. Watch the video here:
He accompanies it with a post reading:
“It’s not often I post something too serious on Social Media and I’m not sure this is the right thing to do and to be honest i’m nervous as hell writing this status but I hope it helps others and I hope you can share this if you think it will help someone.
There is something I have wanted to get off my chest for a long time, 10 years in fact. This will come as a surprise to some of my closest friends who I just couldn’t talk to for fear of loosing them or not being accepted.
But after a lot of thought and consideration I decided to make a video to lift this burden off my shoulders and to share my experiences with you.
I’m talking about depression and its something we all need to talk more about, for too long people have suffered in silence and its not right and as hard as it is to talk about it, it genuinely does help. Im not saying that by opening up to your friends, family, colleagues or even teammates that it will make everything ok, but it will certainly help.
To my best friends I have to say sorry, sorry for not having the courage to do this sooner.
To my family, thank you for the support over the past 10 years.
I’m now 27 and in a much better place in my life. I have spent years in and out of doctors, John of Gods and various other places getting help since the age of 16. It was a dark place and I suffered alone and I shouldn’t have. The past year have been much better and i’m thankfully in a place now that I feel comfortable sharing this and although I wish it didn’t take me this long to open up it did and I cant change that but hopefully I can encourage a few others to do the same.
I suppose the reason I’m doing this is to try encourage others to speak about their mental health issues with family, friends or even organisations.
If you think this could help someone please feel free to share it.
Together we can beat the stigma associated with mental health, an issue that is on the rise with people of our generation.
Just remember you are not alone!”
If you’re struggling with mental problems, here are some resources that might be helpful:
