EXCLUSIVE: Tom Fletcher opens up about his battle with depression

"I went through a tough time with depression, and for a long time I didn’t really recognise what that was."

tom giovanna fletcher

by Arianna Chatzidakis |
Updated on

To show his support for our mental health campaign Where's Your Head At?, Tom Fletcher spoke to us about his experiences with mental health.

When asked about the hardest emotional battle he's ever faced, Tom said: "I went through a tough time with depression, and for a long time I didn’t really recognise what that was. It was only when I saw a documentary that Stephen Fry had made where he described my brain.

"I was at a particularly low point when I saw it, and it was that that made me reach out and go and speak to someone. It was a really defining moment of my life.

"Now I’m in a really good place, so it’s quite easy to dismiss the significance of it on me, but at the time it was so important that I saw that and went to speak to someone. That really changed my life."

Our campaign Where’s Your Head At? 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.

Tom added that "admitting you are struggling with anything is the hardest bit. If you’re overwhelmed or stressed or feeling depressed, the first and most challenging bit is recognising that yourself and telling someone about it.

"That's first and most significant step. Talk to someone, whether that’s your partner, a family member or a professional."

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.

You can buy Giovanna and Tom Fletcher's book Eve of Man here.

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