All day today, I felt the sadness sitting just under the surface – it took only a few musical notes or a hug from a friend or just the sight of a beautiful flower or a few quite moments to bring it all out.

My mind kept going back to how confusing the last few years have been. A couple of years ago, as is normal with most teenagers, he spent a lot of time with his friends. He was happy and doing well at school and university – playing music, gyming, playing his favourite sports and of course drinking. My time with him got progressively lesser and lesser but that was normal too. Occasionally he would express some sadness over a recently broken relationship or some such thing after having had a few drinks. Despite less time together, we felt close. We took holidays together and shared some really good times. His intellectual ability was so good that I trusted his judgement on the choices he made. However, his sleep cycle was quite topsy- turvy and beyond my understanding but apparently that is normal for young adults too.

We know that alcohol is a depressant. We also know that young people drink a lot.

Is it a co-incidence that young people have such a high rate of self harm/suicide?