Until you have hit rock bottom it is impossible to understand the overwhelming emotions and pressures of depression. And the more successful you have been the harder it is to deal with.

Anyone who does not understand this should ask themselves how would they react if they lost everything they value in life – and I am not just talking about money. Trust me.

Dean Windass is a hero because he has had the guts to tell the world that he twice tried to commit suicide last week when he hit rock bottom.

‘I have cried every day for the last two years since retiring,’ Deano told The People newspaper.

‘People outside football think we have it all. But I was in a hole that I honestly didn’t know how to get out of.’

Those words will resonate with anyone who has suffered depression. How we deal with those emotions quite literally determines whether we live or die.

By publicly confessing he has depression Dean Windass – an ex-footballer with a reputation as a tough guy on the pitch – has taken the first step to recovery. God bless him.

– BY JOHN GUBBA