Expert View: Mental Health Is Not A Straight Line

Mental health is often talked about as if it follows a neat path. You struggle, you get help, you recover, and you move on. In reality, it rarely works like that. I am an expert through experience, and this is one of the reasons why I have created Fog of Mind, supporting mental health for men over 40.

Mental Health comes and goes. It shifts with life, pressure, work, relationships, and exhaustion. Sometimes it improves quietly. Other times it returns when you least expect it. It can literally drive you around the bend.

That is something I have learned first-hand. I found consistency incredibly difficult.

Living With Anxiety, Not “Fixing” It

In 2014, I was diagnosed with moderate to severe depression and general anxiety disorder. At the time, I did not fully understand what that meant. I thought it was something I could push through if I kept going. If I stayed busy. If I did not slow down.

What I did not recognise then was how empty I had become. I was functioning, but only just. I was moving forward without any real headspace.

Mental health does not switch off because you want it to. It does not respond well to pressure or denial. Ignoring it only makes the fog thicker. Poor mental health is also indiscriminate, especially for men over the age of 40.

It's Ok to Ask for Help

One of the most damaging myths around mental health is that asking for help is a sign of weakness. It is not. It is a decision.

Last year, when the anxiety began to creep back in, I reached out to my former employer’s Employee Assistance Programme. That single step mattered more than I expected. Not because it solved everything, but because it gave me space.

Space to talk.
Space to reflect.
Space to be heard without judgement.

Sometimes that is all you need to start again.

I had delivered a series of talks in 2023, titled It's ok to Ask for Help. It really is.

The Next Step: Creating Headspace

I have spoken openly about mental health before, but Fog of Mind exists because I want to go further than simply telling my story.

This is about learning how to live with mental health, not just survive it. It is about noticing the early signs, slowing down when life accelerates, and creating headspace before everything becomes overwhelming.

We spend a lot of our lives reacting. To emails. To expectations. To noise. To pressure. Rarely do we stop and ask how we are actually doing.

Fog of Mind is about that pause.

Why This Matters for Men over 40

Mental health does not need grand gestures or constant positivity. Often, it needs honesty, perspective, and permission to slow down.

If this helps even one person feel less alone, more understood, or more willing to ask for help, then it is worth sharing.

That is the purpose here.
To create headspace for you.
To clear the fog, one conversation at a time.

This is what gets me out of bed.

It's time for me to wrap up this post, grab my FujiFilm mirrorless camera, and do something that I love, shooting photography.

More to follow on Fog of Mind including the behind the scenes look on opertions.

Help someone find headspace. Share this.