World of despair: Living with ‘stuffed head syndrome’

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to be invited to give a number of talks, including for corporate and academic audiences, on school founders’ day and at university graduation ceremonies. Quite often I illustrate points with anecdotes from my life. After all, there is nothing better to hook an audience than a story.

A significant part of my journey has been characterised by a battle with mental health, both anxiety and depression.

At some point I realised that if I did not talk about it then I am guilty of perpetuating the stigma and shame that surrounds mental illness, particularly among men. So, whenever the context fits, I tell my story about mental illness and hope that in doing so I do a little bit to normalise it and to give others the licence to speak about it, too.