Made In Chelsea star Joshua Patterson has exclusively opened up about his experiences with mental health, to support our campaign Where's Your Head At?.
When asked about the biggest emotional battle he'd ever fought, he said: "I think being on reality TV is pretty tough, I’m not going to lie. I think that’s a tough battle because it’s a reality show but at the same time it’s an entertainment show.
"You don’t have a great deal of say on what is said or done, and I think a lot of people take it as the holy gospel and sometimes it can be quite unjust. So when you are trying to be yourself and you can be hugely criticised for that, it’s a tough thing to take."
JP has always been into fitness and used it as a way to bring happiness into his life. "Fitness from a young age was a form of escape. So many families go through divorce and my family did. From a young age my sister and I endured a terrible divorce that still continues to this day, and [fitness] was just my escape.
"Fitness saved my life, and it continues to give me balance. If I don’t go to the gym it has a real negative effect on me – not because physically I have to have a six pack – but when I come out of there I’m just so much happier in myself. " JP is the brainchild behind the fitness series LIMITLESS which helps people with their fitness journeys.
Having been through mental health battles himself, JP is a firm supporter of our Where's Your Head At? campaign, which aims to improve the mental health of the nation by ensuring employers look after the wellbeing of their workforce.
We want to make it easy for you to talk about your mental health at work, by ensuring that there are trained colleagues on-site who know how to point you in the direction of any help you might need.
JP told us "the fact that this disease can push a human being to suicide and take their own life is a big enough message. I used to be embarrassed to admit that [I was struggling] but I’ve just got an attitude now where I just don’t care.
"So what if you stress, so what if you suffer from mental health. It’s a part of your life and I think the more openly people speak about it the better it’s going to be. The only way that we can tackle this is the more people that stand up for it the better it’s going to be."
We need YOUR help to make it a legal requirement to have a trained mental health first aider in every workplace or college. Please sign our petition at wheresyourheadat.org and use the hashtag #WheresYourHeadAt to support the campaign.