Adam Southwell is a content creator.
If you want to take your social media game to a whole new level, he’s the guy you need.
In the past six months he’s worked with a mix of professional athletes (including Darren Bent, Hector Bellerin and Anthony Joshua, to name just three), personal trainers, luxury brands and high street bars. He wears sunglasses a lot, flies his drone a lot and works out a whole lot more. He also loves a good cuppa from Costa.
It’s fair to say the guy never stops. Even in the years that followed university, he somehow managed to find the time to balance a full time job with a full time Masters course. Busy, and then some.
And yet what’s great about Adam, is that despite all the amazing things happening in his life, he’s not afraid to look back at some of the pressures he’s faced along the way – the ordeals, stresses and worries that shaped the man working on his own start-up media company, all at the age of just 26.
“In all honesty I think it started many, many years ago” Adam explains, opening up about his personal battle with persistent depressive disorder – a mental health condition he was first diagnosed with shortly after graduating from Sheffield Hallam University.
“My Dad had passed away a couple of years before moving to Sheffield, and while that had obviously upset me, I’d always felt that it was important to step up and act like a man - something that probably contributed to my confusion at the time. However, it wasn’t until about six years later where I had a real moment of clarity.
“I think one morning it all just snapped. My housemates and I had been out on a Friday. I’d had a pretty big night out. My thumbs had text everyone in my phonebook, I’d spent a stupid amount of money and I woke up in my small attic room, clothes on floor, a complete mess of takeaways sprawled on the floor and a real sense of ‘is this my life?’
“I’d been feeling this way consistently for so long and on that day it became too much. I knocked on my best mate’s door and asked if we could get out of the house. We stepped outside and I just broke into tears.”
In the months that followed, Adam took the first brave steps on his own personal journey – a journey that started at his local GP and concluded with a decision to finish a course of antidepressants, designed to address the serotonin imbalance that’d contributed to his condition.
“One thing I will say - and this isn’t to take away from any doctor - medicine is great, no doubt. However, I do believe that me realising the problem, speaking to my closest friend and letting it out was the first, and possibly most important part of my recovery.
“Second was the decision to go and see the doctor, while the final, most recent part involved the changes I made in my personal life.
“I left my job, I left Sheffield and pursued something I was truly passionate about. The excitement, fear and long hours working on A S M was truly a cure for me. And along with my PT Mike pushing me outside of my comfort zone in the gym, I soon started to feel like a new version of myself. I felt positive.”
Today, Adam can be found on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – and for those that enjoy drone footage or hi-res camera work, he’s well worth a follow. However, for those looking for something more than a social media account, you might like to read Adam’s closing line:
“For those going through a similar experience to mine, speak out. Admitting you’re not okay is hard, regardless of what the problem is, but when it’s mental health, there’s no denying it’s even harder.
“Do yourself a favour, drop the word mental. It’s simply your health.”