“I am not OK”: The viral tweet that helped a struggling father-of-two

WHEN a struggling father-of-two decided to tweet “I am not OK”, he didn’t realise that it was about to go viral and help the struggling man out.

Edmund O’Leary, a 51-year-old unemployed father from Surrey, sent out the tweet because he was struggling during the UK’s coronavirus lockdown and he received floods of messages offering support.

Mental health problems rose during the pandemic, and have been a constant threat during 2020, and in his message, which has now been viewed more than 10 million times and  liked by more than 230,000 people, Mr O’Leary wrote:

“I am not ok. Feeling rock bottom. Please take a few seconds to say hello if you see this tweet. Thank you.”

The father-of-two, who has been unemployed for 18 months after working as a mental health advisor, has been struggling with his own depression for over a decade and admits his mental health took a massive hit during coronavirus.

He told The Sunday Times: “This year has been absolutely horrendous. My mental health has really taken a battering. I live on my own, I’m divorced, I don’t have much family support.'”

The father-of-two later told ITV News: ‘Suffering with depression during normal times is one thing but to end up suffering with depression during a global pandemic where there is very little good news is devastating.’

When Edmund O'Leary was feeling at rock bottom, he turned to Twitter for help, asking people to take a moment to say hello.

To his surprise, he was flooded with messages of support as his story reached 18 million people around the world.

He told @helenkeenanTV his story. pic.twitter.com/5vvp6bLlMZ

— ITV News (@itvnews) October 18, 2020

If you are struggling, please reach out to someone for help. Take care of yourselves.

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