The Boy Between: A Mother and Son's Journey From a World Gone Grey

by Josiah Hartley

mental illness does not always have the neat, predictable, hopeful conclusion that we humans take such comfort from.

there isn’t much that life can throw at you that is harder than watching your child suffer.

‘If I had a flower for every time I thought of you . . . I could walk through my garden forever.’ Alfred Tennyson

‘Every man has his

secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.’ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I am thankful that the dialogue about depression is finally opening up. We are getting better at discussing mental health – some of the bigger recent campaigns are making a difference,

‘Because sometimes the bravest thing you can do for someone is set everything else aside, including your judgement – and just listen.’1

mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points in the disease process.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to change direction – and that something that happens in a period of your life doesn’t have to, and should not, define the rest of your life.

‘If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.’ Henry David Thoreau

each morning and was in pain most nights and sports

thoughtful, calm and quiet in a crisis, whereas Mum has

work and no play, or so I thought. It was hard to get him

We put faith, as we always did, in talking things

urgency. Hindsight is, of course,

‘I mean it is nothing to do with you. This is Josh’s journey, Josh’s battle, and he will have to figure it out. You can’t do it for him.’

‘When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you’d like them to be.’ Leo Tolstoy

no matter how bad you feel, how low, how sad, how broken, tomorrow is another day and you might feel differently, and so please, please hang on, just hang in there . . . give it time, give it one more day and then one more day and then one more . . . Please do that.