A CHESHIRE police officer who opened up about his struggles with mental health has received an overwhelmingly positive response.

Sergeant Rob Anderson was moved to write the post on Facebook on Tuesday, February 18, following the sad news of the death of Caroline Flack last Saturday.

The former Love Island presenter was found dead in her home weeks before she was due to stand trial on charges of assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton. In an unpublished Instagram post since released by her family this week, she wrote about her mental health battles.

Writing about his own experiences, Sgt Anderson posted: "Following recent events in the national media I have decided to post about the issue of mental health.

"Where better to start than through personal experience. In July 2018 I had a complete breakdown that I never saw coming.

"It escalated very quickly and I went from feeling not quite myself to being off sick from work within six weeks.

"I didn’t eat or leave my bed for five days and lost well over a stone in weight. It took me four months before I was able to return to work and even then I wasn’t well...I was just able to cope.

"Why did this happen? Honestly I still don’t fully know, although there are certainly some contributing factors that I can put my finger on.

"Sleep deprivation was a big one. I have two children and my youngest has always been a very poor sleeper (until recently – hurray). I was regularly coming into work having had only a few hours sleep.

"You can cope with this occasionally but over time you are left feeling exhausted and it ground me down.

"Fortunately the sleep issues have improved as they’ve got older – to make up for this my little boy decided to deliver a flying knee to the groin that took me out of action for a good 10 minutes yesterday. He was that concerned that he went and fetched the remote himself before demanding Monsters Inc on the TV.

"I have been extremely fortunate that throughout my career I have worked for some brilliant bosses from sergeant all the way up to chief officer.

"I have been provided superb support when I struggled at Widnes. However I have also seen the worst in leadership – throughout all the ranks.

"Some leaders care and some are narcissists who only care about themselves and are completely incapable of listening. The reason I raise this point is if you are reading this and you are a line manager – which kind are you?

"I’ve always found that if you look after your staff with a bit of flexibility then the work takes care of itself!

"How do you cope when you’re struggling – I know how I did.

"I developed an unhealthy approach to beer where I drank every single night. Not to great excess but enough just to take the edge off how I was feeling.

"I also when completely on the own would occasionally punch the wall – why?

"Because if I had pain in my hands it would take the pain out of my head. I also obsessed about issues from the past – counselling has taught me that this is fact another form of self harm.

How have I got back to where I am now? Escitalopram, counselling and a very supportive wife.

"It’s not easy and some days aren’t great. The NHS has had massive cutbacks around mental health and the waiting times are a lot longer than they would ideally be.

"However there are plenty of people who will talk to you. The Samaritans are always a good place to start, a quick Google search and Open Mind in Halton offers support.

"Tell your friends and family – you’ll find that most are far more supportive than you’d think – the ones I was most afraid to tell were actually the best at standing by me.

"So why have I posted today? Mental health is still a taboo and we don’t talk about it enough.

"The world is a far more complicated place than it used to be and it’s very difficult to switch off.

"Most people feel they are very much alone when they are struggling. You’re not. It can happen to anyone at anytime.

"It happened to me and it’s happened to plenty of other officers that I know. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about – I didn’t choose it to happen to me – but if by sharing my experience I can help anyone who is depressed, anxious, stressed then I am more than happy to do so."

The post, on the Widnes Police Facebook page, has had a hugely positive response from readers, with scores of people leaving comments grateful Sgt Anderson shared his story.

Speaking to The Standard, Sgt Anderson said: "It was lovely to see the reaction, I need to post again to thank everyone.

"The more we talk about mental health, the better. Everyone has got something."

Speaking about the support he had from Cheshire police colleagues, he said: "They were brilliant. There were a couple I was worried about, not sure how they would react as it's a very macho environment, but they ended up being some of the most supportive and open.

"I don't want to generalise, but men don't tend to talk about their feelings. If you go out with your mates, you're more likely to talk about the football or something.

"That has changed because I now talk about it, and they are talking about it too. Two weeks ago we were watching the England-Scotland rugby game and one of them approached me to talk about what they were going through."

Sgt Anderson advises people to be good listeners when people open up about mental health.

He added: "When I broke, I was at work. I got to work at five to seven in the morning on the Wednesday, having told my boss on Tuesday I was feeling a bit stressed but otherwise ok, and I came in and cried.

"I left work at 11am and went to the doctors that day. It was not a gradual decline for me. I had clearly broken. It was four years of trying to cope."

He added people should make time for leisure, even if it's for just an hour, to take themselves, such as going to the gym, running, or horse riding.

"It's about taking a break," Sgt Anderson added.

  • People seeking support for their mental health issues can contact The Samaritans at any time for free on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org.
  • For more information about mental health support, contact the charity MIND's Infoline on 0300 123 3393, email info@mind.org.uk or text 86463.