The first thing to say is: I don’t claim to know how to have a breakdown, in the sense of doing it “well”. But I know what happened to me. I know what helped, and what didn’t.

I set up this site to share something of what I went through – what led to the breakdown, what it was like to be in psychiatric hospital for eight weeks, and what happened afterwards.

I made the drawings at the time: they were a very important part of my recovery.

I also did things the experts advised: eat well, do lots of exercise, get plenty of sleep.

And talk to people: share my problems, instead of bottling them up, as if I don’t even have any problems, and can solve everybody else’s too.

(That’s how I used to operate.)

“High Flyer to Rock Bottom”

Talks about my mental health tend to be particularly well attended when organisers use the title “High Flyer to Rock Bottom”. I can see why, but have always feel a bit uncomfortable about the “high flyer” bit.

With a number of talks coming up I’ve been looking for evidence of high flying to put in my bio. I came across an old copy of the Financial Times magazine. It shows:

• a) that I was a staff writer on the FT (“high flyer”) and
• b) that I cleaned the windows on the (then) tallest building in the UK (high flyer)

I thought I would record something about it: