Forget bravado — seek help for your depression
MANY people seem to think mental health problems are phoney diseases for the rich and famous looking for sympathy.
I suffer from a mental illness and only found the courage to face my fears by seeking help. Luckily for me, I wasn’t in the public eye, unlike singer Sinead O’Connor, so I couldn’t be judged.
I had been fighting myself for years thinking I could bench-press it from my thoughts and be a man about it. We keep quiet about our problems and our greatest fear is: ‘What will the neighbours think?’
I was 27 when I began to realise something wasn’t right. I couldn’t function, and I lay frozen in my bed as if I’d been tranquillised.
Then came the panic attacks. My heart was beating so fast, I thought it was going to explode. All my happy thoughts turned into a melancholic nightmare. It wasn’t until day four that I managed to drag myself to a doctor, to be told I was suffering with depression. I didn’t think men of my age could be depressed. That’s what my bravado told me.
My life was consumed with vanity. I never had time to realise I was covering up something deeper than my complexion. I kept thinking I could cure myself, then one day I held my hands up, and cried and cried.
I got help and I talked about it — that’s the first step.
It all made sense, and I could breathe for the first time in ages. I took ownership of my problem and said if I couldn’t fight it, I’d work with it. I went to drama school, started painting and writing, and did whatever I could to focus my energy on living.
I’m now 37, married to a beautiful wife and have two amazing children. I still struggle with depression, but now I take control of my problems and I own them.
CHRIS WILD, Enfield, Middlesex.
Spread wealth
WITH grandiose schemes such as the now scrapped garden bridge, Crossrail and extending Waterloo station’s platforms, London is a black hole for the nation’s wealth.
Westminster should look to the rest of the country that has to contend with spending cuts in hospitals and schools as well as a network of potholed roads.
My town has been starved of investment. Many things have been promised, such as shopping centres, new roads and rail links, but instead we have empty shops or charity and bargain stores aplenty. While council taxes go up, essential services are cut. PETER NEWTON, Crewe, Cheshire.
First class
INSPIRED by the Mail article about how airlines drag their feet over compensation payments, I finally got around to claiming for a delayed Emirates flight in 2012.
I received an acknowledgement within two days, and the full amount of more than £1,000 was in my bank within ten days.
GRAHAM STARKEY, Rochdale, Gr. Manchester.
Powerful left
BEING left-handed has never held me back in life (Letters). I enrolled in the Royal Marines and succeeded in saluting everyone without ending up on a charge.
My biggest problem was training with weapons, particularly the .303 Lee Enfield rifle, where the bolt is on the right side of the barrel. I managed to load and reload by reaching my left hand over the rifle to manipulate the bolt at speeds sometimes faster than my right-handed comrades.
I became one of just a few in my squad sporting the crossed rifles, indicating I was a marksman.
I also proved to be a menace in the boxing ring, where opponents dreaded my left hook.
JIMMY HODGE, Folkestone, Kent.
Still in denial
I AGREE with former equality tsar Trevor Phillips on the Left’s racism and sexism (Mail) and on the consequences of political correctness that led to the coverup of the grooming gangs.
I was born Chinese and have lived happily in the UK for 50 years, and have brought up my family to believe in traditional British values and justice.
I am Asian, as is more than half the world’s population, and strongly object to the BBC describing the perpetrators of the dreadful crimes in Newcastle and elsewhere as Asian.
There’s still politically correct denial throughout much of the social services, police and by politicians, which has led to Labour MP Sarah Champion being forced to quit the Shadow Cabinet. That is why, I am afraid, these outrages will continue.
Last year the NHS treated more than 9,000 cases of female genital mutilation, but there was not one prosecution for this illegal act.
I am ashamed that criminal acts have been tolerated through a misguided pandering to misogynistic primitive cultures that have no place in a civilised British society.
MARY ZAO, Grouville, Jersey.
Bells hell
I ONCE worked in the building trade near Liverpool Anglican Cathedral when there was a bell- ringing practice in which the main bell, Great George, was rung for an hour. The resonance was nauseating.
Why not record Big Ben’s chimes and rig speakers on the Houses of Parliament or Portcullis House, where the MPs have their offices, and continue to use them on a loop throughout the works.
ALAN BOWER, address supplied. A BIT of peace and quiet will do us all good. If you want to know the time, check your watch or make a recording of Big Ben. What is bonkers is suggesting builders should have their hearing ruined. Whoever thinks it is acceptable should apply for the job. ROBERT ANTONY, Maidenhead, Berks. WHAT’S all the fuss about Big Ben? Most builders can cock a deaf ’un any time they want.
R. MARTIN, Halifax, W. Yorks.
Insincere Charles
I AM a royalist, and when I watched the TV programmes about Charles and Diana, I noticed in the footage of the royal wedding, that the Prince vowed to ‘keep thee unto me till death do us part’.
I also took that vow, but through no fault of mine I ended up divorced. I then met and married a wonderful man. But within a week of my second marriage, I was called to the vicarage for a ‘little chat’. The vicar told me he could no longer give me the holy sacrament as I’d broken my vow to God. I had attended church regularly. I spent the next 27 years, until my husband’s death and the arrival of a new vicar, as an outsider from my beloved church.
It appears to be the case of one rule for them and one for me. I’ll never be able to regard Charles as a sincere person and hope Camilla will never be Queen. Mrs SYLVIA CARRADUS,
Conwy, N. Wales.
Covert cameras
I WAS interested to read the letter about the speed camera in Sunningdale hidden behind a hanging basket.
I was caught by that camera in 2005 when it was ‘camouflaged’ in the same way. It is on a left-hand bend and hidden behind a large tree and a road sign, so is invisible to motorists.
I had a long correspondence with Thames Valley Police and the Department for Transport, who supplied me with a three-year-old photo. Fortunately, I’d taken a series of photos and was able to disprove the police statements.
So in 12 years nothing has changed, despite my complaint to the minister. GREGORY BROWN,
East Barnet, Herts. ON BOTLEY Road, Oxford, a street sign hides a speed camera. It can’t be seen from 15 m, but as the motorist gets closer it suddenly comes into view.
I always thought cameras were meant as a deterrent and to reduce speed — that’s why they are painted bright yellow. What’s the point in hiding them or are they an ATM for the council?
KEVIN EGLESTON, Botley, Oxon.