Mark Priestley

It's been a few days since the apparent suicide of actor Mark Priestley and I have to admit it has been on my mind now and then.
I can't work out why he would have done it.
On the surface he had so much going for him - he was good looking, talented, on a successful TV show, he had a bright future - so, why?
It has developed that he suffered quite badly from depression. My question is how much help did he seek, what could lead him to think there was no hope?
I don't know the degree of what he was going through, though seemingly he was able to function enough to perform his job on All Saints. I guess you never can really know.
A couple of years ago I had my own battle with depression. It saps your energy, focuses your mind on yourself, drains you of the enjoyment of things, everything is really hard work.
When I think back on that time I wonder how I got through. Things got fairly dark at times for sure. Perhaps for Mark he was in the middle of one of those times and made a snap decision. That's just pure speculation of course but makes some sense to me.
I know it is easy to say here, but you should never lose hope. And thankfully for me, and everyone out there should they choose, God offers hope.
Anti-depressants are effective but they can also mess with you. I can say, as I am currently beginning a staggered reduction in mine, that while they take the edge off they have a very bad side effect that can be frustrating.
Simply, you can't release any emotion. You can laugh, but a lot of the time you can't cry. It's hard to release the things that are eating away at you. I really don't like that side of it and it is part of the reason why I am attempting to come off them (albeit slowly). The other part is because I am feeling great and don't really need them.
I think the best thing to do when a dark patch hits is to sleep on it.
I believe that nothing is as bad in the morning as it seemed.