Local actor speaks out about his mental health after featuring in film campaign for Suffolk Mind

A local actor has spoken about his own mental health struggles during a hard-hitting film released by Suffolk Mind.

The independent mental health charity has created the film portraying a fictional story, based around real struggles people go through. It’s to highlight the vital impact that support from services like Suffolk Mind can have on someone’s life.

Paul Goldsmith, shared his own struggles during filming and wanted to communicate these experiences as part of the film, to show that anyone can face periods of mental ill health.

Paul suffered a nervous breakdown which had a huge impact on him and his family. He said: “I closed myself off to all around me, including my children. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, not physically but mentally. I didn’t want them to see me failing, to see me low, after all, I’m a daddy and I should be a superhero, right?

“This led me to go deeper and deeper into myself, which in turn allowed the demons to attack more as their voice became the loudest. I became a shell of myself, no confidence, no drive or motivation.

“It became a very dark period and one that now I know could have been completely prevented if I’d have just taken time for myself; to understand that self-care isn’t selfish, that it’s ok to not be ok. That it’s a power and strength to stand up and say ‘my world isn’t right, I need to make some change.”

Lizzy Tuthill, Fundraising Coordinator at Suffolk Mind said: “We are so grateful to Paul for speaking about his mental health as part of this video; unfortunately, Paul is not alone in his experiences.

“Suffolk has a population of 750,000 and typically almost 200,000 will need mental health support at some point. We want to be able to help all those who need us, and also reduce the number of people who need that support in the future. With the help of the Suffolk community, through donations and gifts in Wills, we can help each person not only now, but for years to come.”

This film will be shown at a webinar hosted by Suffolk Mind on Thursday 2nd December, 1pm – 1.45pm, which aims to show the huge need for mental health support in our county, and what impact services that Suffolk Mind provide have on our community.

According to a report from Suffolk Mind, the mental health of people in Suffolk has worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic; more than half of us are still not, on average, meeting our emotional needs, which means we are experiencing stress and are at risk of mental ill health. Before the pandemic hit, one in four of us experienced a mental health problem in any given year – so this figure is still double what it was before Covid-19.

Jon Neal, Chief Executive of Suffolk Mind said: “We are inviting our commissioners, fundraisers, donors and supporters to our webinar, to show them the increasing need for mental health provision in our county and how their vital support helps thousands of people.

“Our research shows that although restrictions have eased, we are still seeing more people struggling with their mental health in Suffolk, than before the pandemic. We will share the reasons behind this, and how we can continue to keep supporting the community of Suffolk.”

Or to support us in our mission of making Suffolk the best place in the world for talking about and taking care of mental health, visit our Giving site.