As I publish this, Jonathan Trott is on his way home from Australia, his demons having got the upper hand. My Twitter timeline is full of comments on it, mostly supportive but - inevitably - the occasional "man up" or "ha ha, he's quitting cos he can't bat any more". Those reactions are hurtful, obviously, but some people can't be reached - they are determined to hide behind ignorance. As well as the unsympathetic, there are the confused. "But your life is great, why are you depressed?" In some ways, that's harder. You feel that you need to justify your mental illness with some catastrophic event. And, if you can't, it can feel like there's no choice but to put on the mask and tell everyone you're fine.
Jonathan Trott has a good life - he has a loving family, he's an international cricket star. But he is not fine. He has a mental illness which doesn't care about those things. Demons are no respecters of money, fame or even love. I was wanting to share this story anyway; both as a thank you
to my friends and as a sort of heads-up for people who might believe the
lie of "I'm fine". It seems even more relevant now.
