Copy of From Death Wish To Diagnosis - PHYSICAL COPIES

I knew my wife and I were having issues. We have been living together as "friends" for a while now and it was hard to ignore. With that in mind, I decided to open up about how I was feeling. For a couple of weeks we had conversations, skirting around the issues and never really "dealing" with anything. That is, until my wife told me she wanted a divorce.

This declaration didn't exactly come as a surprise but the timing of it left a lot to be deserved (I mean, did it have to be done on my birthday?) and I ended up going into a tail-spin. I was worrying about how I would keep up the house payments, how I could keep paying my bills, how I could maintain my car payments and - more importantly - how I could keep a hold of my pets. I went from having "usual life problems" to drowning and the only way out that I could see was suicide.

And it's here my mind got stuck.

I would go to the bridge in town. I would sit there and cry. I would talk myself out of jumping with thoughts of my dog and how she would feel if I abandoned her. I knew it was only a matter of time before I did just jump though and, that's when I went back to the doctors to tell them I was struggling with my mental health.

Within 24 hours I was sitting opposite "Bob"; one of the many people working within the Crisis Team. He told me I wasn't battling depression (something the doctors often pushed at me) but was, in fact, having an ADHD meltdown. I'd heard of ADHD before but this was the first time I was hearing about a meltdown. The more he explained, the more everything started clicking into place. It didn't "fix" my head but it helped me start to process things... And I would continue seeing Bob every couple of days.

The purpose of this book is not to make you pity me. I wrote it as a diary throughout my time with the Crisis Team, and subsequent meetings with ADHD assessors, community mental health teams, psychiatrists, psychologists and "normal" doctors. The reason I wrote the book was both to help myself and raise awareness towards mental health and what happens when we can find ourselves in crisis. I want you to see that, actually, it is "okay" to talk about such things and - when we need it - help is never as far away from us as it could feel.

I am not alone.
You are not alone.
We are not alone.

Profits from this title go to mental health charities.