Stephen Fry

I was both saddened and heartened to learn of Stephen Fry's admission that he had attempted suicide last year.

Saddened that such a brilliant man should have been so ill that he would even contemplate such a thing and yet at the same time heartened that he felt able to reveal it to others.

Why so?

I have followed, as a TV viewer and a reader, his glittering career and marvelled at his humour and intelligence.  And his openness as a gay man and as a manic depressive.

It cannot have been easy.

He 'came out' as gay at a time when it was, shall we say, less fashionable and came out as suffering from a bi polar condition when the subject is not only unfashionable and, moreover, remains taboo for a lot of people.

"What," say some, "Has someone like Fry got to be depressed about?  He's rich, he's talented.  What more could a man want?  Snap out of it."

Those of us with less extreme mental issues have been here before, hearing the ignorant pontificate on illnesses they don't understand or even wilfully misunderstand.

I have had it before, although not to the depths that he has plumbed.

"What on earth are you depressed about?  You've got everything!" and of course I have, or very nearly, but mental illness shows no favours.

And there's the difference between happy and sad because with depression you can be both at any given time.  

A psychotherapist once told me that depression, or more generally, mental illness is the great unknown in society.  It's the unspoken unknown too because even today many people - and many people do suffer in silence - dare not mention its name.

In recent years, governments of both colours have allowed provision on mental health to wither on the vine and things are now worse than ever.

There are anti-depressants for most people, anything for the well off and nothing much for people with more than minor issues.  That's not to say that depression for the well off is any better, it's just that some people can afford the extortionate levels of private care.

Stephen Fry's private hell becoming public benefits us all because if he can come out, then anyone can.