I’ve always loved wildlife and nature even as a young boy I had a pair of binoculars around my neck i just loved being in the countryside. As the years went on my passion got stronger, in the 80s we used to go out on Exmoor in Somerset on our holidays with the local butchers boy Graham Floyd from Porlock.
We would be up on the Moors 5am watching the Red Deer. I will never forget watching master Stag prancing around knowing he was it with all his points showing.
Nature holds a place in my heart it helped me recover from a mental breakdown, in 2014 I was put under a lot of pressure at work I wasn’t eating and only having half an hours sleep each night if I was lucky in the ended up bursting into tears at work and I began spiralling mentality downwards I ended up being off sick from work for 10 weeks and being admitted to St Anne’s psychiatric hospital in Poole Dorset.
The staff in there were such a bunch of kind, caring dedicated people, once I was stabilised on my anti depressants I was allowed home I wouldn’t leave the house I was scared to go outside. My mum and dad managed to get me to our doctors she knew I love wildlife and nature she said for me to set my timer on my iPhone for five minutes go outside take some photos and when my timer went off to come home and write down in a diary how I felt and what I saw and to increase my length outside when I felt comfortable.
When your going through a mental breakdown all your worries keep constantly going around in your head when I was staring through the lens of my camera i was focusing on that one moment all my worries faded into the background and gave me some head space.
I am fully recovered now and I know it sounds stupid but I feel stronger since my breakdown than before it, If something isn’t right now I will say about it instead of bottling it up. If you feel depressed now please tell someone like you’re family, partner, or a friend at work please don’t make the mistake I made and suffer in silence.
Open up !