LG Surgeson

I am a teacher, writer, blogger and mental health advocate. I have suffered from chronic depression all my life and have developed coping mechanisms, provided advice and blogged about my condition for the last ten years or more. I believe that this kind of advocacy - talking about mental health on a personal level, baring all as it were, is the only way that the taboo will completely dissolve.  

As a teacher of teenagers with social, emotional and behaviourial difficulties, I spend my working life trying to understand motivations and other people's perspectives, and in particularly developing ways to communicate with those who are oppositional or hostile. I have years of professional experience dealing with the consequences of mental health issues, poor self-esteem and difficult relationship, predominantly among young people but it's remarkable how people don't change much as they get older.