Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Social farm is a way to heal wounds of mental illness
Dad Robert helping others deal with depression
I couldn’t switch my mind off. I spent days without sleeping.”
As his mental state deteriorated, Robert began to feel his family would be better off without him.
He went on: “It’s something you hear when people talk about depression and it really did become a big thing in my mind.
“I felt like I had nobody to talk to because I didn’t want to be a burden and I let myself get isolated.”
While Robert didn’t make another
CO ANTRIM YESTERDAY
direct attempt on his life, he admits he considered it.
He said: “I started doing things that were quite reckless around the farm, things that were dangerous because I wanted people to think I’d had an accident. I just wasn’t coping.
“In the end my wife got involved. She took me to the GP and I ended up in hospital.”
After a few weeks of treatment and medication, Robert began working towards his recovery.
And now he has figured out a much more successful way to deal with his mental health. In addition to a series of intensive counselling sessions, he continues to attend meetings with depression charity Aware where he talks about his worries and supports others struggling in the same way.
He said: “Going to the groups and hearing from other people there about their situations really helps.
“Hearing about the devastating impact suicide can have triggers an instinctive self-preservation and makes me want to live, for my family. There are people there because someone they loved with other key services, particularly health, education and housing.”
Each year officers arrest more than 20,000 people. Two-thirds are identified as having a mental health or potential mental health issue. died from suicide 20 or 30 years ago. I don’t want that for my family. “When you’re in that dark place you feel you can’t see anything positive and the thing I did was to let it build up too much in my mind.
“I know now the right thing to do is to talk about it as it happens and now I’m very open with my wife and my children. It makes such a difference because I know they won’t be better off without me.
“My wife and children are very understanding and I’ve started to enjoy things again where I hadn’t for a long time – life as a family, the animals on the farm. “I’m getting a social life back and I know life is very much worth living.” For advice and support about depression go to www.aware-ni.org and for information on social farming visit www. ruralsupport.org.uk.