A message from a sufferer: you are not alone

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P is 34 years old and has had depression and anxiety since the age of thirteen.

Despite knowing his triggers, P has difficulty in multiple areas such as family, isolation and other social aspects of life. However, he reached out for help. In particular, he described Newark Mind as an amazing place, helping so many people. He believes that support has helped to keep him stable and knowing there is support available has been reassuring. Knowing you are not alone means more to P than anything. 

P wrote a piece for our website because he wanted to show others they are not alone. He would like to say to others that:

“We all wear masks – it’s a natural part of life to show people what they want to see or what we want them to see. We wear it as armour protecting our true selves from danger and harm, but for some of us that mask becomes more, it becomes a work of art, something that we have lovingly crafted with careful strokes of the brush until it resembles the Mona Lisa or a Van Gogh. Everyone sees it and they are blinded by its wonder.

“That is what we want them to see, we want them distracted by the mask, our art. But to us, ourselves we see the flaws. We see the harsh brush strokes that tell us of our faults and pain, we see the little marks and finger prints on the canvas.

“We seek perfection in an imperfect world and to us our mask is that path to perfection.

“There is always a little bit of you in the mask no matter how much you hide. You can’t escape yourself even if you don’t know who you are therefore why should you try? Getting to know yourself is an interesting journey as you are forever changing so you need to look forward and concentrate on the steps in front of you as the future could be bright.”

(P’s contribution was made with help from Holly Black.)