'I didn't know how to go on... then I found a way'

Dawn Parker has opened up about her mental health struggles and, by doing so, has found a way to help others. Ellie Gosley reports

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I: 2019, Dawn Parker was in a dark place. She had always been passionate about helping others, working in children’s and social services before becoming a job coach, but she was burning herself out and suffering from bouts of anxiety and depression.

‘This “low point” made the 55-year-old woman from Pontypridd realise that she needed a change.

“I didn’t want to continue to feel that way. I thought, if this is what it’s going to be, I don’t want this, and that thought frightened me,’ she explains.

‘The anxiety had been bubbling underneath the surface for much of Dawns life, but it all came rushing to the forefront during a particularly difficult period of her life.

“1 cared for my mother from the age of 10, as she experienced her own mental health issues after the death of my father. He had a brain haemorrhage and died at the age of 46. [left home at 16 years of age, as it was all too much,’ Dawn says.

“My mother then suffered a stroke and heart attack and passed away when I was 26. I was married with two young children at the time, so a lot happened to me in a short space of time.

“Having experienced trauma as a child due to domestic violence, I had always struggled with bouts of anxiety and depression.

“However, 2019 was an especially difficult period and I became disillusioned with life and hit an all-time low due to going into surgically induced menopause.

“| had a hysterectomy due to heavy periods and fibroids and there was no alternative treatment. I had surgically induced menopause overnight and this was difficult to cope with and contributed to my mental health struggles.

“My depression was so bad that I frightened myself at how low I felt and decided that I had to make some changes to give myself space to heal and improve my mental health”