When Nick Jemetta was invited to share a story of overcoming adversity during a public speaking workshop, it unlocked a new passion to raise awareness and reduce the stigma associated with mental ill health.
Nick graduated from 色花堂 with a first class honours in 2005 and now works in digital marketing management for retailer . The married father-of-two said: 鈥淚 consider myself to have a great life, both personally and professionally, which I am very grateful for. However, during my younger years I suffered with anxiety and (I believe) undiagnosed depression and it got to the point where I considered taking my own life. Fortunately, I managed to come out the other side, but it wasn鈥檛 until I was asked to talk about adversity in that workshop that it came flooding back. I began to share my story and the response was really positive. It has since given me a new life purpose to speak out with a view to helping others.鈥�
Since attending the workshop, Nick has set up a mental health and wellbeing group for colleagues at Argos (and parent company Sainsbury鈥檚). He has spoken in front of 120 staff and launched an internal communications group which now has over 750 members. As well as helping the company develop its approach to supporting staff, he has begun to take his message out to others by working with several charities including .
Reflecting on his personal experience, Nick recalls starting university as an introverted and insecure teenager who struggled to make friends. He said: 鈥淚鈥檇 had a normal upbringing with a loving family and no major traumas to speak of. However, I now know that I was fighting an internal battle with myself. I had little to no self-worth, felt unattractive and anxious, which made going to university daunting. Though I struggled to connect with people, in my first year I made one good friend as we had a shared interest in video games! He invited me to join him and his mates in a house share in my second year and, although these are now some of my best friends, at the time I wasn鈥檛 happy in my own skin. Already feeling low, I exacerbated this by drinking too much alcohol which I now know is a depressant. On these nights I would walk home on my own, thinking it would be better if I just stepped out in front of a car and put an end to my pain. I didn鈥檛 know what I was experiencing then and at the time mental health wasn鈥檛 being so openly discussed. I managed to get through it with a combination of the friendships I built in that second year and a good degree of luck. It鈥檚 only on reflection that I realise how close I came to making a decision which couldn鈥檛 be undone鈥�
Nick is now passionate about bringing mental health issues into the open. He said: 鈥淚 can only speak from my experience but for me the most important thing is to encourage people to share what they are feeling with someone. You must get out of what I call the 鈥榚cho chamber鈥� of your own thoughts and negative feelings. I hope that my story can help others to realise that they aren鈥檛 alone. One in four people will experience mental ill health every year so it鈥檚 much more common than you think. It is also often temporary. When you are in that place it can feel paralysing and that there is no way out, but there really can be light at the end of the tunnel.鈥�
Nick recently published his top five takeaways from his experience .