Hello.
My name is Oliver Thompson-Smith.
I’m 23 and, following an attack four years ago, I’ve been dealing with depression and
PTSD.
This led me to take an overdose last month.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve done this but, with what I want to talk about today,
I think, I know it’ll be the last.
For the past four years, pretty much I’ve been through hell and back.
My moods and thoughts become so low that I convinced myself I wasn’t worth anything
to anybody.
I didn’t matter.
People didn’t really care or…
I was just in a very dark place and sadly, taken these past four years to realise that
this isn’t the case.
That all started, really, by just asking for help and after taking the overdose, I panicked.
Realised I’d made the biggest mistake of my life and I went to the Samaritans office.
I knew there was one nearby that I wanted to go to.
I just didn’t really have the courage or…
I don’t know.
I didn’t go until...
Yes.
But, since going, it’s…
I felt a change in me and a new mood, a new me.
As cliché as that is to say.
It maybe too soon to say this but they may have changed my life that day.
I know it sounds ridiculous.
I mean, how hard is it to really ask somebody for help?
But I’d beaten myself up so much these past four years that I didn’t think anybody wanted
to help.
I didn’t feel my problems were worth anything.
There wasn’t anybody out there to help me.
But that’s not true.
There are people who want to help and since talking about this, becoming more open about
this and seeing the Samaritans that day, anybody, pretty much everybody I’ve gone to, really,
has shown their support and offered help in ways I didn’t think they would.
The Samaritans again, the hospital I went to for treatment after I took the overdose,
my friends and family, my girlfriend, the team, the home treatment team, [inaudible]
in Bromwich, who I’ve been under their care for the past month.
They’ve really, really supported me through this whilst seeing me most days.
I think I’ve seen about six or seven members of the team there but they’ve really been
so supportive and so caring and just, whenever I’ve asked for help from anybody, they’ve
all been there for me.
They’ve all given the help that I didn’t think I’d get or didn’t think I deserved,
almost.
So, I guess, in a way, this video is to also say, thank you to each and every one of them.
Without them, I may…
Well, who knows?
But I know, because of them, that I’m here and I’m fighting this.
For the first time in four years, I can safely say that I am fighting this and I’m feeling
better because of it.
So, yes.
Please, I guess, if you’re feeling anyway as close as I did or on that path I was or
feeling yourself slipping down the path I was going on and getting to the stage that
I got, just stop and ask for help because there will be someone there to help.
There will be someone there to offer advice, support.
You can text, you can write, you can phone, you can ask somebody.
You can go to Samaritans, you can go to Mind.
You can contact anybody.
There’s so many lines out there for you to contact.
Do what I did and do it.
Ask for help because it’s there.
It’s really out there for you to get you through this.
Thank you.