People who have had mental health issues #2: Marian Keyes

So I was reading her latest book last night and the woman knows her mental health, and its stigma. She's one of the more well-known depression fighters- she beat alcoholism, she writes about the mental consequences of things like rape and violence, and generally we're quite lucky to have her.

But, she's still going through a lot and at the beginning of last year she suffered a breakdown. It was covered by a few newspapers, although if you want to keep your temper then for love of God don't read the comments in the Daily Mail article. Her most recent update on her newsletter says:

"I don’t exactly know what to say because I still don’t really know what happened to me. The medical profession call it ‘a major depressive episode’ but I’ve been knocked sideways by a multitude of feelings, not just depression but agitation, anxiety, terror, panic, grief, desperation, despair and an almost irresistible desire to be dead and it’s gone on for a very long time. Every day for six solid months I’ve had to try really hard to stay alive. I’ve literally got through each day hour by hour, trying to hang on until the sun set and it was time to close the shutters on the windows and then I’d feel, Okay I’ve survived another day."

I figure a lot of people will relate to that? I can, a little. It worries me a bit that that last update was back in May 2010...I hope she's better now.