Ta msyn’sstory…

On the surface, Tamsyn Phillips had it all – a good job, a masters degree and loving family and friends.

But as the 26-year-old was lying on a beach in Spain, where she was working as an au pair, she was crying, unable to speak.

An articulate and confident young woman, Tamsyn had been diagnosed as bipolar 2 with borderline personality disorder in her early 20s, but it took a depressive episode last year for her to realise she needed to slow down.

“I don’t think there are any words that describe what depression feels like, but I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It’s such a debilitating experience,” she explains.

“I realised that I didn’t want to be 30, 35, 40, and feeling like this. “I recognised that I had been putting

a plaster over it, just getting through, and if I didn’t stop and take the time to get better, I wouldn’t have been around for much longer.”

The Canterbury Christ Church University graduate, who now lives with her father in Herne Bay, decided to turn down a job offer as an English teacher and return home.

Just six months later, she describes herself as “unrecognisable”.

“I haven’t had a period of stability like this in my whole life,” she says, something she credits to attending

But thankfully, a turning point came when, after being encouraged by the friend she had confided in, Hayley spoke to her mum and brother, who brought her h o me to Newham.

I used to cry to my friend and say I didn’t think I’d see my 19th birthday