Where to start, I have recently been diagnosed with acute depression, due to Seratonin Deficiency Syndrome, over the last nine or ten months I have had one problem after another which has slowly ground me down, problems in life, and health problems. Looking back it started on fifteenth August two thousand and eight I remember this day as it was my grand daughter’s fourth birthday, and my wife and myself were invited to her party, it was getting towards the end of my shift at work and I had a fall in which I hurt my wrist, at first I thought I’d just badly sprained it, we arrived at the party and I showed my daughter in law my wrist, she fetched her friend over who was an orthopaedic nurse, and she said that she would be very surprised if I had not broken something, a trip to the hospital revealed that I had broken my radius at the wrist, This was on the Friday, on Monday I was back at work I managed as I was only painting and had no heavy lifting to do, this seemed to be the start of my problems. Two weeks passed quite uneventfully, then I had news that one of my closest friends had to have his leg amputated due to poor circulation, and his prognosis was not good, a few weeks later he died, I was best man at his wedding and I was totally devastated. Then I developed a lung infection which lasted for about a month, shortly after this we had to go on short time at work only working a three day week, after being used to a decent wage and a comfortable lifestyle we were now just about managing to keep our heads above water, time went by and I received news that another one of my closest and oldest friends had been taken ill, and died in hospital a couple of days later, once again I was devastated. Christmas was pretty bleak with our financial situation, but we made the best of it. We all new work was tight but in Early February we were laid off, and in the constuction industry there was just no work to be found at all, so after nearly forty years in the industry I found myself on the scrap heap, another body blow, we struggled through the next three months and my health was suffering again, I started passing kidney stones, and then developed a secondry infection, where I was passing quite a lot of blood. During this period we were falling behind with our mortgage payments, and the lenders were threatening us with repossession, and the inurance company were finding all sorts of excuses no to pay out. The final straw came shortly after my wife and myself had a row, for a couple of days she would not speak to me, then she announced that she was leaving, she went to stay with friends, and shortly afterwards found a flat, this was the last straw for me, and I took an overdose of paracetamol, about sixty tablets, I was found while I was still alive and rushed to hospital, where I was in critical care for a while, and eventually made a full phisical recovery, but was left mentally scarred. When I returned home the house was virtually empty, my wife had cleared just about everything out, all she left me was a dining table, four chairs, a few pots and pans, and some oddments of cutlery, and of course my personal belongings. This was the time when I new I could not cope on my own, so I went and stayed with my son for a while, after a week I came back home and tried to start putting my life back together, but it was a struggle, I had no interest in anything at all, and my thoughts were turning more and more to making a second attempt on my own life, but I’d made a promise to my family and decided to seek help, when I was in hospital the docrors offered me anti depressants, but I refused them, but now I felt that I needed something or I would end up killing myself, so I went to the doctors and she put me on prozac, unfortunately though they take five or six weeks before they start to work, and I have only been taking them for two weeks, so I still have quite a way to go, and at times I feel in total despair, but on the other side of the coin there are glimmers of light albeit at the end of a very long tunnel, the doctor is arranging for me to have psychotherapy, and I can only hope that this has a positive effect.