Hi, I’m Dean, a qualified personal trainer and coach based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
My purpose in life is to help people thrive in thieirs.
But first, I want to tell you how I came to this realisation and about my personal journey to get to this point in my life.
I’m an ex-British soldier. I joined the army when I was 16 and served for 8 years, in a reconnaissance regiment completing tours of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The first year after leaving the army was a challenging and dark time for me, my mental health rapidly declined, and I lost a lot of stability in my life. This sent me into a spiral of self-harm, drugs and alcohol in order to cope & attempted suicide.
Back then, I perfected a smile. I learnt to hide the way I felt. But inside was a different story altogether. Inside, I was struggling.
The illness was slowly ruining my life, but no one around me knew - I had fooled them into thinking I was fine. In 2016 I attempted to take my own life. I couldn’t see a way out, there was no light at the end of my tunnel, and I could no longer cope. After being discharged, and still struggling with depression, I attempted to end my life for a second time. I was really struggling to cope.
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I was then diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and PTSD.
After the shock of my diagnosis I had to learn, adapt and also come to terms with it so I began to channel my energy into awareness, from social media to public speaking, sharing my story and showing that even people like me - a 6 foot 4 tall ex-army soldier, man - needs help.
Now, the stigma surrounding mental health is something that I am incredibly passionate about and my motivation is to work towards raising awareness.