A woman whose father died from suicide, and who has struggled with mental health for decades has shared her experience to encourage others to seek help.

Mental health and emotional wellbeing have been a growing concern during lockdown but many organisations are available to help.

Adriana Klick, 42, a dancer from Govanhill, has been living with mental health issue all her life.

After receiving support from mental health groups she plans to volunteer to help others.

Adriana, who moved to Glasgow from the Highlands, said her father had died by suicide when she was a baby, but it was never discussed in the home and for many years she did not know how he died.

She said: “It was a huge taboo, a family secret that we couldn’t talk about. My mum did her best bringing me up, given her own trauma, but it had a huge, emotionally damaging effect on my childhood. I felt like I didn’t fit in at school and like I wasn’t connected to anyone emotionally. I later found out my dad had bi-polar disorder and that I may have a predisposition to a chemical imbalance.”

Adriana said she struggled with an eating disorder and with her sexuality.

Through medication, counselling, talking therapy and studying mental health issues Adriana has learned to manage her health.

She said: “People can be ashamed they are struggling when others appear to be coping with life’s ups and downs. I used to think, ‘This is pathetic, I should be able to deal with this - other people can’. You feel useless, and a burden to others.”

People living with a loved one with depression, she said, can feel powerless because they don’t understand.

She said: “When you have suicidal thoughts, it feels like a hopeless situation. People have told me to pull myself together and get on with it, which adds to the shame. A conversation where the listener guides me back to my sense of hope is the greatest help I can receive.

“Some people think suicide is a selfish act, but it is not. It’s an act of deep despair due to acute mental and physical, paralysing pain and fatigue. People don’t need to understand depression to help a loved one. Your logic will not be the same as their logic. You have to accept that is how they are feeling, even if you can’t understand why.”

SOURCES OF HELP

If you are experiencing confusing or distressing thoughts, call NHS 24 on 111.

  • Samaritans - 116 123 (freephone)
  • Breathing Space - 0800 83 85 87 (freephone)
  • If you, or someone you know, needs URGENT HELP call 999.
  • Further information can be found HERE.