About Mentor Scotland

Hello and thank you for visiting our website. My name is Jamie MacLean, founder of Mentor Scotland. 

 

The reason for creating Mentor Scotland is because I have suffered mental health problems throughout my adult life. After countless trips to doctors and a bad counselling experience I was unable to understand my thoughts and feelings and unfortunately slipped in to a deeper depression and wanted to commit suicide. There’s something about writing this today that feels difficult to put down in words. However many years on I feel very well and aware of my thoughts and feelings. Due to my experiences I want to help our community feel able to open up and share freely the experiences they have with mental health in order to end the stigma we have attached to it in our society. 

 

My early childhood experiences left me very unsure of myself, not worthy of love and unable to trust people. With all of this on my mind I behaved in a manner that wasn't true to who I was. I was always masking my problems by using drink and recreational drugs to escape from the reality that I had to make changes to become who I want to be. A never ending journey of growth and self development. 

 

I would encourage anyone who feels unable to cope with their thoughts and feelings to seek support. As I said I have had bad bad experiences and now fortunately I've also had very good and positive experiences with  counsellors. However, we are here to welcome you at Mentor Scotland a peer to peer support network. It's been a great start for us and we're looking forward to welcoming you through the door.

 

Jamie