Men are not alone in suffering from mental illness, but the fact they do suffer is effectively suppressed by everyone in society, including the men who suffer. There is a stigma about it, the result being men deny the facts and are afraid to seek help. There are of course many forms and degree of mental illness, not all of which end in tragedy. But all mental illness, especially if borne in silence, will not only thwart the life-chances others take for granted, it will deny us even the basics of a happy life, one lived without the daily fear of some imagined calamity. In this short book I discuss mental illness, based on my own experience as a sufferer of many years who has managed to overcome the worst of it. I have done this largely without the help of the UK's underfunded and overstretched public health system. Here's how: