So after much encouragement to get writing, welcome to my new blog. I’ve never done anything like this before so please be kind.

My life over the past 14-15 years has been dominated by an ongoing battle with depression. Unfortunately, it took me over 12 years to acknowledge I was suffering, that I couldn’t manage it on my own by just ignoring it and that I needed to seek help. During the last 2 years I’ve obtained help from my GP and the pharmaceutical industry, attended courses and counselling sessions and received incredible support from pretty much everyone I’ve talked to about it, both family and friends – many of whom I’ve never met but, through the power of Twitter, have become a huge part of my support network.

As time has gone on, I’ve come to accept a lot of things and acknowledged that so many of them are outside of my control so they really have not been worth the importance and control over me that I had allowed them to have. This process of acceptance and recognising when I am struggling has led me to where I am now, stepping gingerly out of the dark and back into the light.

Hopefully through my blog I will be able to share some of my story and the things I have learned. There will also be posts on travel, food, adventure and pretty much anything else that takes my fancy.

Before I sign off for tonight though, it would be wrong of me not to mention my wife. I suggest above that I spent the first 12 years battling depression on my own but nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout my illness, my wife has always been by my side, supporting me without question and without judgment. Helping me get through and constantly picking up the slack whenever I couldn’t even start something, let alone finish it. For so much of this time I never even knew there was anything wrong but the more I look back, the more I see where she held me up. I try not to think about where I would be now had I truly been fighting alone.