Benjamin Fry

How I F***ed Up My Life and Made It Mean Something Benjamin Fry

Publisher Marketing:"Gosh, what a rollercoaster of a story: a shining light amid the dark mess of the mental health system" Oliver James Benjamin Fry's mother died when he was eleven months old and he was cared for by various family friends until, aged two, he went to live with his father, and new step-mother. He had an apparently gilded youth: Eton, Oxford, brains, money, looks (photographed at eighteen by Mario Testino). As an entrepreneur, he managed to make his first million by the time he was thirty. By forty, he had lost everything. Having invested in Greek property, in 2008 his life went out of control. He found himself facing untold debts, a fifth child on the way, nowhere to live, and a rapidly disintegrating relationship with his father, his family, and his beleaguered wife. Early trauma combined with adult misfortune. This made for psychological combustion and, in 2009, he suffered a crashing nervous breakdown which nearly killed him. On the brink of suicide, he somehow boarded a flight to Phoenix, Arizona, heading for one of America's leading trauma clinics. Only then, after many months of suffering at the very coalface of mental illness and distress, was he able to make the first tentative steps to recovery. How I F****ed Up My Life and Made It Mean Something is not only the startling story of the disintegration of a man who for all the world seemed to personify privilege, it is also the more universal tale of the torturous struggle by an individual manifestly floored by camouflaged trauma and the drama of trying to find someone, anyone, who knew what to do about it. Rarely has an account of a nervous breakdown and poor mental health been so eye-opening, informative, honest, detailed, raw, and heart-wrenching. For people who have experienced mental health problems themselves, including behavioural disorders and addictions; who have been on the merry-go-round of recommended, but unsuccessful, treatments, or know those who have; or for anyone who is just curious, this book is essential reading. Contributor Bio:  Fry, Benjamin Benjamin developed an interest in psychotherapy and other areas of personal growth during a long and varied personal treatment starting in his twenties. After a degree in physics and philosophy at Oxford University Benjamin studied psychotherapy at Regent's College in London. He has recently returned there to study towards a professional doctorate in psychotherapy. He wrote the book "What's Wrong With You" and the eponymous column in The Saturday Times Body&Soul section; and recorded the follow-up audio book "How to be Happy" for Hachette Audio. He now contributes to Psychologies magazines' regular feature Fast Therapy in which he features his own method live in session with a reader He is perhaps best known to the nation as the co-presenter of the BBC's groundbreaking and long running "Spendaholics" series on BBC3 in which he helped overspenders by getting to the root of their problems. He was a member of the Center for Social Justice's commission for early years development contributing to their publication Breakthrough Britain, The Next Generation and contributes to their commission on Mental Health. Benjamin has a private practice in Harley Street and is founder of the Happy Hour network for which he trains practitioners from many professions to work with his method.