As we come to the end of a decade, Mairead has been asking you to go ‘Back in 10’ and take a look at what you’ve done in the last 10 years. Today, listener David shared his Back in 10 story.
At the beginning of the decade, David wasn't in a good place and noticed a big dip in his mood. He traces this back to being bullied as a teenager, and to when he was mugged at the age of 14. He hadn't dealt with either of these events and his change in mood was a delayed reaction to these events.
As his depression worsened, David lost faith in himself and others, and got to the point where he didn't want to live anymore. After reaching his lowest point and making the decision to end his life, David realised the amount of effort that was going in to putting himself down. He then decided to take all of that effort, and instead putting in to building himself back up.
David started seeing a counsellor, and also started running which was a turning point - he found his purpose. He started running marathons, and now uses physical challenges to inspire people and also to raise funds for mental health charities.
One example of this is when David ran 10 marathons in 10 days - on a running track. The reason for the running track was to symbolise the pain, monotony & never ending feelings associated with mental illness. David ended up raising nearly €20,000 for Aware and was joined on the running track by a lot of people.
As you can hear, David is doing very well now. He has good and bad days, but takes them as they come and knows that it's ok to have a bad day.
You can hear the conversation in full by pressing the play button on screen.
