![\"Aware](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WK23HCYW7VFCBL52GWQWCPUEMM.jpg\")
Aware NI facilitator Ken Boyd. PICTURE:BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\nDepression affects roughly one in five people in Northern Ireland. Although it\u2019s a major health problem, many sufferers don\u2019t want to be identified because of the remaining stigma.<\/p>\n
Not so Ken Boyd (54), ex-British Airways flight attendant and Aware NI facilitator. \u201cOut and loud\u201d, he says, stating it\u2019s important to talk openly about mental health issues, to raise awareness and tackle the taboo. <\/p>\n
He recalls the day depression struck. \u201cI was 39 and on holiday in Spain, when you should be having fun in the sun, but suddenly the black dog (Winston Churchill\u2019s term for his depression) knocked at the door. I lay there, unable to get out of bed, hopeless, with the blinds closed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Aware NI facilitator Ken Boyd. PICTURE:BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n
Boyd didn\u2019t leave the hotel that day until 5pm and felt he had succumbed to his family\u2019s inherited complaint which had afflicted five generations.<\/p>\n
If you ask me to define depression, it\u2019s a sense of blackness, doom, the feeling you\u2019re never coming back<\/p>\n \u2014 \u00a0Ken Boyd <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a history of depression. I thought I was destined to follow the same route and that frightened me.\u201d<\/p>\n He felt desperate, adding: \u201cMy father was very religious and I went to the bottom of the bed and prayed to God to take it away.\u201d <\/p>\n Read more: ADHD needs assessment must be \u2018turning point\u2019 for Northern Ireland services \u2013 The Irish News<\/a><\/p>\n On Boyd\u2019s return home, he confided in his older sister Alison who had the perfect answer. \u201cShe said \u2018You\u2019re just like me.\u2019\u201d This reassurance enabled Boyd to cope with his diagnosis and what followed. He says openly now: \u201cWithout Alison, I wouldn\u2019t be talking to you today, I would have taken my own life. If you ask me to define depression, it\u2019s a sense of blackness, doom, the feeling you\u2019re never coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t easy. After fighting the diagnosis \u2013 \u201cyou could tell me I had anxiety, that was alright, but not depression\u201d \u2013 Boyd went on medication, although he wasn\u2019t initially keen. \u201cI fought the use of medicines and Dr Google came into play\u201d. <\/p>\n What saved him was a wonderful GP, Dr Susan McGarity. \u201cShe held my hand, said I could keep coming to her for help but needed to take the help offered. After sampling all the anti-depressants around, I realised it wasn\u2019t like the pic\u2018n\u2019mix at Woolies.\u201d<\/p>\n These days Boyd is fiercely pro-medication \u201cwhich I\u2019m on for the rest of my life, it\u2019s like putting bits of plastic into my eyes to see\u201d. The doctor saw Ken Boyd weekly for check-ups on his mood. He has also had incredible support from his husband, Stuart.<\/p>\n Boyd had to go private to see a psychiatrist, explaining he feels the NHS mental health services are \u201cat breaking point\u201d. Once, after reaching out for help, he got an aromatherapy session offered the following day.<\/p>\n Working in a job in airlines that requires professional cheerfulness presented challenges. <\/p>\n \u201cI was cabin crew and when I had a few relapses, had to take time off. And depression is still somewhat taboo, but I remember people saying to me, \u201cDepression, you?\u201d on the aircraft when I spoke honestly about my illness.\u201d <\/p>\n At one point, Boyd realized that while a couple of glasses of Sauvignon blanc cheered him up, he\u2019d wake the next day with a \u201cthick head\u201d and realised if alcohol was a depressant, why was he indulging. \u201cYou need an overall approach to illness.\u201d<\/p>\n What really turned things around, apart from his sister\u2019s support, was discovering Aware NI support groups for those with depression. <\/p>\n \u201cOne day I saw a poster in the doctor\u2019s surgery for a group and thought about going. The first time, I just drove home, didn\u2019t go in. I think the first time I actually attended the East Belfast group I didn\u2019t speak, but then the flood gates opened and it all came pouring out. <\/p>\n \u201cThey were so warm and welcoming. The key message which provides hope is that you\u2019re not alone with your problem, others have suffered and come through the darkest days.\u201d This is, he says, empowering.<\/p>\n Boyd is now a facilitator with the Newtownards Aware NI group and enjoys giving something back. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to have the opportunity to help people. If I can give them something to help them on the road to recovery, show they can get better, that\u2019s amazing. And the training is second to none, in mental health, suicide prevention and when you ned a second opinion with issues you don\u2019t feel comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n He thinks it\u2019s a problem that men hide their feelings, and women are twice as likely to get a depression diagnosis overall. <\/p>\n \u201cThat idea of stiff upper lip, man of the house fixing things. It\u2019s male pride. But denial won\u2019t help in your recovery.\u201d <\/p>\n He says that his experience has changed him for the better in some ways. \u201cI\u2019m a lot more compassionate to those with issues, a lot less judgmental.\u201d<\/p>\n As Boyd emerges from a two-year episode of depression, he says that some days the black dog of depression is \u201cAlsatia-sized, sometimes a chihuahua.\u201d \u201cBut my chihuahua lapdog will never beat me and tonight at seven o\u2019clock I will take a Newtownards group. <\/p>\n![\"Belfast](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/QJYL6QXZOVG3LL73IQBFE7X6WQ.JPG\")
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Aware NI facilitator Ken Boyd. PICTURE:BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n