Former footballer Clarke Carlisle last week revealed that he was trying to kill himself when he jumped in front of a lorry in December. The ex-PFA chairman has suffered with depression since calling time on his playing career and Dartford goalkeeper Jason Brown, who at 32 is three years Carlisle’s junior, tackles that subject in the latest edition of his weekly column.

People sometimes forget that even football players are susceptible to everyday pressures and problems. They always say "look at how much money they earn" and "how can they complain about depression?"

Simple – we are human!

To gain success, you have to make sacrifices. Those are the things people don’t see and struggle to understand.

I remember running around the playground when I was 15, using my school bag as a goal post and pretending to be a Premier League star. Within seven months I was a young footballer, having to act like I was 26.

I was living the dream but at a price.

In my first year as a scholar with Charlton, I struggled to come to terms with the amount of pressure – not only playing and training well but also college work. It took two years before I was well-drilled in knowing my daily routine.

When you play for a big club, they cater for everything. Your boots are cleaned for you, your kit is washed and people within the club take care of day-to-day things like paying your bills as well as helping you cope with the spotlight. You’ve worked hard to get those things but what you don’t realise is that the bubble you’re living in becomes bigger.

You occasionally hear of players doing silly things. I think they’re trying to relive the teenage years, except they have a lot more money.

Once you’re in that bubble, you start to believe you’re untouchable.

Although it’s a great privilege to play professional football, you have to make more sacrifices. Christmas, Easter and a lot of other family occasions just become normal training days. I missed the birth of my daughter because I was away with Wales.

For all but six weeks of the year, you’re always with your team-mates – training, eating, travelling and playing games. You win and lose together, you share some of the funniest times and you build bonds of friendship and extreme trust. Your team-mates become your main family.

Routine, structure, friendships and the buzz of the pressure of playing in front of big crowds... The bubble of your day-to-day life is growing bigger and bigger.

Then, one day, it’s gone. The bubble, the structure, the buzz, the friendships, the trust and the banter of the changing-room, all gone. All that you’ve worked so hard for has just gone.

Now, no matter what you’ve done, you’re just you, not the person who thousands of people were cheering. They used to buy tops with your name on the back but now you’re just YOU.

Your biggest fear has come true. That monthly wage won’t be coming in, you can no longer live out the same lifestyle and your so-called friends all disappear.

Could the PFA do more? They provide good education courses for life after football but what they could really do is some type of monitoring for you and your family. The PFA say 20% of players get divorced and go bankrupt. Some may argue the stats are higher.

Would anyone turn down the opportunities football gives? No.

Is it a British mentality that if you feel depressed that you are looked upon as weak? Possibly.

Everyone is different but I’ve always been interested in coaching and mentoring people. I’ve been coaching for more than a year now and seeing those players sign for professional clubs and putting drills into practice in games gives me a buzz – as big as if I’d just made a save in a big game.

Read Jason Brown's exclusive column every week in the Dartford Messenger.