When I was 38 my body started shutting down - I couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep, and one day I saw death watching me as I walked up Aungier St. Clearly, whatever was wrong with me wasn't just physical, and I made a doctor's appointment. A fat old slob of a D4 doctor shrugged and prescribed sleeping pills, but some last vestige of the survival mechanism kicked back to life and I knew meds would be the end-game for me.

I kept looking for help and a little trial-and-error bought me back to a doctor in London who'd known me since I was a teenager. He sent me straight to a mental hospital for what turned into a three-month stay and a lot of 'talking therapy'. Cognitive Behaviourial Therapy saved my life - I'm blessed that the doctors there respected my decision to avoids meds, and that the CBT started to help me immediately.

It took another five years before my addiction to alcohol was diagnosed, and that's a whole other story. I later learned, in the course of studying for my degrees in psychology, of the high rate of co-morbidity between addiction and depression, and the high rate of failure to dual-diagnose sufferers.

I urge anyone who suspects they are sick to get help, and also to be aware that medical professionals aren't infallible. Ultimately, it's up to us to educate ourselves about our mental health, and to put what we learn into practice every day, the best we can. In the meantime, let's go easy on each other - we never truly know what someone is dealing with.

100 Voices was published in the Hot Press Mental Health Special in conjunction with Lyons Tea and Pieta House as part of the Now We're Talking Campaign. For more please visit hotpress.com/now-were-talking/