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I fully agree that it is taboo for most "normal" people to talk openly about mental health issues. If you a celebrity, then it often seems abnormal nowadays if you do not have some form of mental illness and often such celebrities can talk openly about it. Yet for people in mainstream jobs such as lawyers, it is very difficult to talk about such subjects.

I have a Friday afternoon brain, having suffered from Tourette's Syndrome, possible ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome, depression, OCD and anxiety for many years, certainly since childhood. I did not choose to have these disorders but I have to live with them. I am a very moody person and I am certain my colleagues know when not to approach me. But I am good at my job and I feel some of my character traits have been positive in making me a good lawyer.

I am sure I would not have been offered my current job many years ago if I had discussed some of my problems, and even now I feel that I would be treated differently if I "came out".

People do not choose to have a bad back or headaches or arthritis, and people with such ailments can talk openly about them and often gain sympathy. The same is not true of mental illnesses yet people think you can just snap out of it or take some "happy" pills.

My experience of medication is that many drugs are blunt instruments with very severe side effects. Understanding the condition and how to manage it are just as important as taking pills. If you look at the history of many drugs used to treat mental health, you will often find that they were discovered by accident. The drug companies do not want to invent new drugs when existing ones happen to work.