Simon's story

53 years old Simon from Southport came to James’ Place Liverpool for help after a suicide attempt.

“Things started to get on top of me after I experienced some very difficult things in my life, I lost two people close to me, my fiancée left me, and my business collapsed. I felt like I couldn’t cope, it was the first time I had felt like that. The only way out I could see was suicide, and I made an attempt to end my life. I was taken to hospital and they told me they thought James’ Place would be able to help me so I thought I would give it a try, I knew I needed some support so that I wouldn’t end up in the same position again.

The people at James’ Place couldn’t have been nicer. My therapist was so easy to talk to, and the sessions gave me something to focus on, whilst I started to learn how to fix things myself. I realised that I had been quite anxious for a while and these recent events had just tipped me over the edge. My brain was constantly going straight to the worst case scenario all the time, and that made me feel like I couldn’t cope.

Since leaving James’ Place I feel a thousand times better. I’m a big advocate for counselling now, I would encourage any man in the same position to reach out to them for help, even if you’ve never talked about your feelings to anyone before. My family still don’t know what I went through as I don’t want to upset them. Having the confidential support I received from James’ Place, and knowing that I had somewhere to go and someone to talk to was life-changing.”

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To find out more about referring yourself or someone else to James’ Place click here.