Each and every day millions of people with mental health issues find themselves suffering in silence, often with tragic consequences.

As part of the End the Stigma campaign run by KentOnline sister paper the Kentish Gazette, Anna MacSwan spoke to three people who know what it's like to feel as if there is no hope, and how opening up saved their life.

On the surface, Tamsyn Phillips had it all - a good job, a masters degree and loving family and friends.

But as the 26-year-old was lying on a beach in Spain, where she was working as an au pair, she was crying, unable to speak.

An articulate and confident young woman, Tamsyn had been diagnosed as type two bipolar with borderline personality disorder in her early 20s, but it took a depressive episode last year for her to realise she needed to slow down.

"I don't think there are any words that describe what depression feels like, but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It's such a debilitating experience," she explains.

"I realised that I didn't want to be 30, 35, 40, and feeling like this.

"I recognised that I had been putting a plaster over it, just getting through, and if I didn't stop and take the time to get better, I wouldn't have been around for much longer."

The Canterbury Christ Church University graduate, who now lives with her father in Herne Bay, decided to turn down a job offer as an English teacher and return home.

Just six months later, she describes herself as "unrecognisable".

"I haven't had a period of stability like this in my whole life," she says, something she credits to attending crisis group sessions with the Canterbury charity Take Off.

Held on a Sunday evening when most other support services are closed, the group is run entirely by people with first-hand experience of mental illness.

"We play Scrabble, cook, and bake. There's no pressure to talk, it's just being in the company of people that understand what you're going through," she explains.

A keen musician who plays the piano and guitar, Tamsyn has now begun to run the charity's musical and creative groups.

Tamsyn's battle for help has been far from straightforward. Characterised by severe mood swings, bipolar disorder, which increases the risk of suicide by 20 times, takes more than 10 years on average to diagnose.

"People don't realise you can feel suicidal every day and not talk openly about it..." - Tamsyn Phillips

Although Tamsyn began to self-harm at the age of 12, it took five years for her to be diagnosed - wrongly - with depression, which meant she was given medication which exacerbated her mood swings.

It was only after seeking private help that she found out she was bipolar, which she describes as a "lightbulb moment."

"It explained so much of my behaviour, and my feelings," she says.

"When I was younger, a lot of the time I was told it was my hormones, it was my age. I was belittled quite a lot.

"People don't realise you can feel suicidal every day and not talk openly about it.

"You can have a good job, you can have a loving family, you can afford nice things, but mental health doesn't exclude on the basis of that."

Her advice to others struggling to cope is to not be embarrassed or ashamed about opening up to family, friends or a medical professional.

"It's scary, because we don't talk enough about mental health, but I think it's so important and so vital," she says.

"You need to do what's right for you, because it's such an intrinsic and very different thing for every person who experiences it.

"There are a lot of people going through mental illness, and even though you feel very alone, you would be surprised who deals with it."

Another person able to talk about their mental health experience is Daniel Russell.

Eight months ago he almost took his own life and in November lost his job at a bank after racking up too many sick days.

But the 35-year-old, who is bipolar, says he does not suffer from his illness, but instead lives with it.

The dad-of-two, who finds solace in his daughters Isabelle and Charlotte, partner Sandra, and love of photography, said: "I can't fix it, but there are also positives to this illness. It's made me a very creative person."

Daniel, who moved to Herne Bay from Maidstone after divorcing his wife five years ago, has rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, meaning he experiences multiple swings each year between periods of manic highs and depression.

"My illness affects me every single day of the year. When I'm depressed it's the most painful experience I have ever had in my life," he says.

"I once had to have an operation on my toe and the anaesthetic didn't work. It was pure hell, but that was like going on holiday compared to being depressed."

Photography, he says, is something which helps him "get through those bad days."

"You need to accept that you have a chronic illness, and that it's not going to go away..." - Daniel Russell

"When you're really low you can't do anything. But when you start to come out of that depressive state, you kind of need to rehabilitate," he explains.

"When you're trying to remember who you are, getting out the camera helps. It gives me something to focus on. You're able to say 'I can do something' and that's a powerful thing."

Daniel particularly enjoys taking landscape shots of Herne Bay, where he says the sunsets "just invite you in", as well as creative pictures of local bands.

Daniel's hobby has now developed to the point where he now has a monthly stall at Herne Bay Market, and is hosting upcoming exhibition of his work at Beach Creative in May.

Vital to coping with his illness, he says, has been getting to the point where he can talk about it.

"It took me a very long time to have that courage. But eventually, I got to the point of being able to say something was wrong," he says.

"Talking about it gives you ownership. There are things that you can't control, but you can manage quite a few things around it. You need to accept that you have a chronic illness, and that it's not going to go away.

"Once you have accepted that, you can then control it, rather than it controlling you."

To see Daniel's pictures visit www.djrphotography.net. His photo exhibition in support of Mind, the Samaritans and Take Off will run from May 17 to 23.

Not many people can say they've spoken about their most painful moments in front of thousands of people.

But Hayley Mulenda, a first-year sociology and social policy student at the University of Kent, has done just that.

More impressively still, it comes only a couple of years after she was so overwhelmed by depression that she thought she might not reach her 19th birthday.

Now 21 and living in Canterbury, Hayley originally began her studies at Sussex University and says she struggled with the same pressures many young people face when they first move away from home.

"I don't think I was mentally prepared to go to uni. It was completely different from being at home," she says.

"It's the first time you experience true independence in terms of managing money. I grew up in a vibrant part of London that has a big Asian population, so I also never really experienced what it was like to be an ethnic minority until I moved to Brighton.

"I was just really overwhelmed."

Aged just 18, Hayley was running her own company, Inside A Dream, giving motivational talks at schools and universities, as well a being featured on the news website Huffington Post.

But ironically, being such a high achiever - which culminated in her being named the most influential black entrepreneur under the age of 21 by Be Mogul - made it difficult for her to admit something was wrong.

"I don't think I knew where to turn for support. I found it very hard to feel vulnerable around people," she explains.

"The first thing that really helped me was the presence of people..." - Hayley Mulenda

"I felt that I had to be a certain way, and be a certain person."

At her lowest point, she says that on more than one occasion, she tried to stifle the pain by overdosing.

"I couldn't eat, I couldn't shower, and I couldn't brush my teeth. That's when the suicidal thoughts started happening," she continues.

"I used to cry to my best friend and say I didn't think I'm going to see my 19th birthday. I was just in such deep pain."

But thankfully, a turning point came when, after being encouraged by the friend she had confided in, Hayley spoke to her mum and brother, who brought her home to Newham.

At a time when so much interaction takes place via social media, she says that being physically close to her family and friends was crucial to her recovery.

"On social media, people just compare. There's a certain lifestyle that people try to portray which can put pressure on young people," she says.

"The first thing that really helped me was the presence of people. My best friend saved my life by coming down to see me; and my older brother, by just sitting in my room with me, even if we were sitting in silence.

"Getting out of that place was really hard. One of the things that also helped me was understanding that it wasn't going to happen overnight."

Today, Hayley runs sessions on mental health at universities and companies across the UK, and even overseas in Uganda, where her mother is from.

With her mantra being "breakdown can lead to breakthrough," last year, she shared her story at the WE Day conference at London's Wembley Stadium in front of an audience of 14,000 people.

"I hope to touch the lives of many and instil inspiration and wisdom, helping my peers to understand that breakdowns can lead to breakthroughs and your current situation is not your final destination," she says.

"I want to trigger others to let their walls down and not just mask their issues but actually deal with them."

REACH OUT

• The Samaritans can be reached 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by calling 116123 on any phone or emailing jo@samaritans.org

• Take Off is a Canterbury-based mental health charity 100% led by services users and can be reached on 01227 788211 or by emailing office@takeoff.works
• Kent County Council's Release the Pressure campaign also offers support, call 0800 1070160 or visit releasethepressure.uk for more information