Jack Straw tells of struggle with depression (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Jack Straw tells of struggle with depression
11:43am Monday 24th September 2012 in News
BLACKBURN MP Jack Straw has revealed how he suffered from depression as a result of political turmoil and illness.
In his autobiography, being serialised in the Daily Mail, Mr Straw, 66, has written about his struggle shortly after he was first elected as an MP in 1979.
He said he was facing attempts to deselect him and suffered a serious infection that left him with partial deafness and tinnitus in his right ear.
He had bottled up emotions from a childhood in which he witnessed his father attempting suicide and his parents’ marriage disintegrating.
In 1976 he had also suffered the loss of a newborn baby daughter, Rachel, by his first wife Anthea.
He wrote: “Suddenly, everything came to a head. I fell into a serious depression.”
The mother of Alice, his second wife, suggested seeing a psychoanalyst, who he still visits occasionally.
The book, entitled Last Man Standing: Memoirs of a Political Survivor is published on September 27 by Macmillan and the Lancashire Telegraph will publish a series of special extracts every day next week.
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Comments (1)
12:04pm Mon 24 Sep 12
district01 says...
The people of Blackburn would have voted anyone in because of party loyalty and for that reason only. Sad that Blackburn has become what it is because of it!