My name is Rob and I’m 50 years old we all think “I never thought that something like this could ever happen to me”.
I used to work as a landscape gardener with my own business but after getting ill I had to give it up as it was no longer possible for me to do the work. I had depression and PTSD before my Fibromyalgia which is a challenge to live with as anyone with these conditions well knows but this made it a lot worse as I started to have to give things up that I enjoyed doing and one by one I felt my normal life disappeared in front of me.
In the last few years I’ve trained as a counsellor and have a Diploma in advanced counselling and a Diploma in PTSD diagnosis and management hoping that I would be able to help others with similar problems but my health just hasn’t aloud this to happen (YET).
I’m so very lucky that I’ve got a loving wife who has supported me all the way through this even though I can see how it has affected her as well. I owe so much to her that I will never be able to put into words.
Like so many of us with mental health problems I’ve given up on a number of things but I’ve clung to the little things sometimes just to get through. It’s not easy and everyday is a fight despite what some people may think but there is a way out there for everyone to help them get through this.
I have learnt to keep trying even if it feels like there is no hope anymore. I was taught not to use the word stubborn while I was training to be a counsellor because it can come across as a negative and to use the word determined instead but I think a little bit of both is what you really need to keep going when you are in a bad place.
Be a determined, stubborn person to fight your way through to the next day as things could feel so much better even in the next hour.

Author - Rob Atkins

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