An 18-year-old should be worrying about points, exams, and summer plans, not how to survive the day after losing a parent. Katie Ann from Ashbourne, Co Meath, joins us to tell her story with a level of honesty that stops you in your tracks: growing up in a big, scattered family, becoming fiercely close with her dad, and then watching depression and anxiety slowly take over the person she loves most.

We talk about what mental illness looks like in real life, not as a headline: the loss of routine, the messy house, the exhaustion, the fear in a parent’s eyes, and the way families often avoid naming what is happening. Katie Ann also speaks about the pressure of sixth year and Leaving Cert stress while living with constant worry, and the complicated guilt that can follow suicide bereavement, even when you have done everything you can.

She shares the moments that mattered, the moments that haunt, and the moments that helped: teachers who checked in, friends’ families who opened their homes, and supports like Pieta and HUGG for people bereaved by suicide. We also dig into coping tools that sound simple but are hard-earned, including pacing yourself through grief waves, protecting your mental health around drink, and finding small routines when motivation is gone.

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