I hadn’t dealt with any of my pain and I just wanted to end my life!

For a large part of his life Luke lived with pain and misery unable to have honest relationships with people close to him. For most of his time at school he was bullied because as he put it “I was unlikeable’’ resulting in him trying to take his life at 11 and a number of times subsequently. He was totally disconnected, isolated and lost in the world. So paralysed by fear he’s been unable to get out of bed. He constantly regulates his responses to other people which is exhausting and suffers from severe anxiety every day and visualises extreme events that won’t happen. During his adult life he became an alcoholic and, in the end, couldn’t cope with it all and tried to kill himself. If it wasn’t for a freak event, then he wouldn’t be alive today but thankfully he is and thanks to the support of many people has been sober for 7 years. Luke has found himself finally and I believe he was and is a courageous human being, but he doesn’t see himself in that way which has ultimately led to people attacking him throughout his life. He never truly revealed himself to anyone until he met his current wife, because at Luke said “who would love me? Luke has needed other people to make him happy but now life is worth living because he wants to be the best version of Luke he can. I truly hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.