Throughout 2018 I was unwell. An episode of depression had sideswept me into a terrifying, confusing state where black was white and right was left.

A longstanding history of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was concurrently diagnosed at the age of 25.  I had unknowingly been suffering with OCD for two decades. Journalist Bryony Gordon, who also suffers from OCD, articulated the condition brilliantly on her Mad World podcast as: 'the brain not registering what the eye can see' (https://bryonysmadworld.telegraph.co.uk/e/mad-world-sean-reuben-fletcher/). Also known as the 'doubting disease', OCD crushes self-belief and leaves you in a near-constant paranoid trance.

With the right treatment I was able to recover 6 months after diagnosis. This attests to the need for us to keep talking about mental health and to be open about how we're really feeling to enable us to find the support we might need.

Please help me raise awareness of OCD and mental wellbeing by donating to Mind. The more we understand and talk about mental health, the better for those who are suffering with or without knowing it.

Thank you,

Tom