Andrew's story
Andrew had been struggling with his mental health for years and needed some support…
“I’ve struggled with mental health issues for a number of years. I can feel down, depressed, anxious and I’m hard on myself at times. All that goes into a tailspin of different emotions and I can end up in a bad place. I reached this point and I knew I needed help now. I needed to talk to someone.
“When I spoke to Ben, I felt really positive, they’re really supportive and were quick to get someone to speak to me. They treated me with compassion, like I mattered and as though they genuinely wanted to help. The whole process from initial contact to counselling and then to coaching has been really good.
“I had a few conversations with Ben to assess what help I needed and they put me in touch with a counsellor. I’ve had counselling in the past, so I knew that speaking to someone who wouldn’t judge me would help iron out some of my problems. Then I started coaching.
“Having someone to talk to outside of family helps. I could offload onto this person and it’s my own space. I felt better for getting it out and off my chest. If I hadn’t had the support from Ben, it would have potentially spiralled into something else. Colleagues at work noticed something was wrong and that something could happen.
“Since counselling and coaching, I feel like I’ve now got all the tools I need to sort my issues out. Only I can help myself. Having another person there to help out and give a different perspective is nice, it’s a separate place where I could deal with things.
“I’m quite excited and positive for the future now. I’m going somewhere new, it’s all fresh, different and I’m looking forward to new challenges.
“Getting support is well worth pursuing, especially if you’re in a dark place. It doesn’t necessarily have to be for your mental health – it could be financial issues or anything else. A lot of blokes struggle with saying ‘I have a problem’. Sometimes it takes an outside party and someone to talk to. We need organisations like Ben.”
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