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Anna Williamson: My battle with anxiety

Anna Williamson is a TV presenter who has worked on CITV, Daybreak and GMTV.

Andy's Story: "I am now much more in the present"

On the surface I had the perfect life â beautiful wife, two amazing kids, great job, nice house and car. I did have a lot of good times but I also had lows and the more of those I experienced, the more I became depressed by them. I began to think that there was nothing I could do â that there must be something wrong with me. It was always that despair that led to the depression. I had heard that Mindfulnessâ based Cognitive Therapy had helped a number of people deal with the low and was recommended the book The Mindful way through Depression . As I started to read it, it made complete...

Lily's story: How a self-management course changed my life

Lily was living in a homeless hostel with no ambition or goals and she tried to take her own life.

Rachel's story: Learning confidence in my parenting skills

Rachel is a stay-at-home single mum, with two young children: Jake and Evan.

"Mindfulness has been a removal of the crippling feeling of dread and anxiety"

Energetic, passionate, positive, happy, excited and content. These are all words that I would use to describe myself today, but it hasn't always been this way. Eleven years ago depression entered my life and since then I have had three episodes that have taken me to the darkest days I have ever experienced. I spent three whole weeks lying in my bed awake, unable to do anything and too caught up in my own mind to care. When depression came it was as if life had stood still. I would go a whole week without washing my hair, I just threw on my clothes and I became reclusive â pushing everyone...

Jonty's Story: A GP's perspective on mindfulness

Jonty Heaversedge is a GP who appeared on the BBC's Street Doctor.

Wendy's Story

When I got diagnosed with postnatal depression , I had no motivation. My doctor didn't look at any alternatives (to medication ) â you went in there and it was like âhere you are (a prescription). I saw the Community Psychiatric Nurse for a while but there wasn't enough support â it was only an hour a week, and there were no crÃ¨che facilities. I felt like society had let me down. I changed doctors earlier this year, and they introduced me to EXCEL. It's a real positive for me because it's a discipline and it changes your lifestyle. It's given me a new lease of life. There's the social...

Bringing Back Nicola

My name is Nicola I am 49 years young and this is my story. I used to consider myself a strong, upfront person, who did not really care who I offended and was not very sympathetic to other people's problems. I thought those who suffered with anxiety or depression were lazy and should pull themselves together and get on with life as I always had. In the last 12 years I suffered domestic abuse, became a single parent, and suffered a very harrowing personal bereavement. I thought I was invincible and was a bit wild and reckless in my personal life as I did not care very much about myself...

Melissa's story: Finding a treatment that works

I am 35 and struggled with severe depression for most of my twenties. I tried so many types of treatments including dozens of drug trials, various therapies, even ECT . I attended day programs and lived in residential treatment and group homes, often needing intense care.The pain was so severe I was hospitalised 20 different times for suicidality and self harm . Much of the time I was completely without hope. Though I have limited memory of the worst years, I know that it was like slogging through mud. Every movement, every step took so much effort. Being alive was exhausting. But I had...