Gary Speed and Depression

Last Sunday I, like so many others heard of the death of Gary Speed, the Manager of the Wales football team. As we listened to the news it became clear that Mr Speed had tragically taken his own life, apparently after a long term struggle against depression.

Obviously I did not know the man, so have no idea how much he suffered, what form his depression took, and whether that was indeed the cause of his actions. As a football follower I knew him as a fine midfielder in his playing days and could not fail to be impressed by what he had already done for the Welsh side. Having heard interviews with him, he also struck me as a very honest man, of man of ability and integrity, and a thoroughly good man.

He seemed to have everything going for him, a success in football management, a popular well liked man with a highly respected and admired career in football.

So, like many others, I posted short tribute to him on Facebook. It seemed appropriate, it is something I normally do when someone I admire, or someone I respect for their achievements dies. In this case, there was the suggestion that depression was the root cause, and I do have an involvement in, and interest in, mental illness.

During the day, several like tributes appeared, but other comments appeared suggesting that many of us spent much emotion and effort paying tributes to a sportsman, whilst ignoring the death of young soldiers paying the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, or any other theatre of war.

Of course there is much to be said for that argument, it is much easier to publicly mourn a celebrity, from whatever field, than someone we have never known, someone we have only heard of because they have had the courage and nobility to devote their life to the service of the crown, defence of the realm and paid the ultimate sacrifice.

I do understand and respect that view, but I have to say this in my defence.

Service people join the armed forces knowing that they will be called to put their training to the test in a theatre of war, they are also clearly aware of the risks involved, that death is possible at any moment of the day or night. I would never have had the courage to do what they do, and respect them immensely. I have known people who were involved in the two World Wars, people who have done tours in Ireland during the troubles, and indeed a guardsman who fell victim to a bomb in Hyde Park.

All of these people deserve our respect, support and encouragement. They don’t select the wars, if you are unhappy with a war, tell your MP, tell the government, don’t turn your back on the young men and women who go to do the fighting, they do not deserve that. The actions of the people of Wootton Bassett have been a credit, It would be wonderful if the whole nation could display the same compassion.

On the other hand, Mr Speed may have suffered an illness which eventually led to his death. All of the tributes I have heard have said that there were no obvious signs of depression, but that is exactly the point I seek to make.

Depression, like all mental illnesses, is a chronic condition that devastates the life of the sufferer and destroys the lives of their carer or carers, yet there is little sympathy, no understanding of the condition.

Depression can present in different ways, for some people the loss of esteem, of confidence, is dominant and they stop looking after themselves, withdraw from themselves and from society. Others are able to hide it from all but their closest confidants, and frequently even from them. They continue to live life relatively normally, whilst suffering unendurable pain and suffering, confusion, and loss of confidence.

For this group, no one knows they are ill, they are expected to live their life as normal, but people do not realise that for them, the act of getting out of bed in the morning can be a major achievement, the very act of putting on the mask to greet people can be almost traumatic, but the sufferer puts themselves through it to hide their problems from the world, maybe trying to hide the problems from even themselves.

The result of this is that they find themselves under even more pressure to maintain the act it becomes harder to admit the problem and harder to seek help.

Sufferers of depression are frequently not diagnosed early enough, if at all, frequently have to cope without support from the health service and the carers have no idea of what support is available to them. The reasons for the lack of support do not come into this text, but it is the lot of countless mental health sufferers.

My hope is that the tragic death of Mr Speed, a ‘name’, a celebrity, will bring depression more into the public consciousness, give it some publicity and hopefully people will start to gain an understanding of the illness. Hopefully it can become less of a taboo subject and start to lose the awful stigma attached to mental illness. I believe that if the illness were more openly discussed, as people like Ruby Wax and Alistair Campbell are starting to do, it will become a less alien subject, people will start to develop an understanding, then an acceptance. That should then lead on to more public support for sufferers and their carers and help them to maintain a more normal life.

So much stigma and even discrimination are the result of fear, fear of the unknown. Not so long ago subjects like homosexuality and AIDS suffered the same stigma and lack of understanding. Both have now lost that stigma to a large extent and are accepted as normal by a large portion of the public. Clearly things will not change overnight, but we need to make a start on talking openly about this subject with a view to reducing the stigma.

I would ask everyone in a position to do so, open the debate on mental health to the public, help to educate people, be prepared to talk about your experiences (that is no simple thing to do) and lets do all we can to remove the stigma and introduce some understanding of mental illness.

Finally, every soldier, sailor, airman lost in war is a tragedy, a tragedy for the deceased, their family and friends, we cannot mourn each one individually, but we, the Nation, come together on Remembrance Day to pay tribute to everyone who has fallen, to show our respect and to mourn. In the case of a celebrity I think it is right to show our sorrow at the loss of those we have admired or even loved from a distance, and when the death is in such terrible circumstances if it can trigger a debate to generate more understanding and consideration of the condition, then maybe, just maybe, the death will not have been in vain

Never underestimate the destructive power of depression