Exclusive: Gulliver Waite signed up after antidepressants and talking therapies failed to alleviate clinical depression
M
illions of young people risk missing out on new treatments for health conditions and having to use medicines that are unsafe, ineffective or inappropriate because so few take part in medical research. One of those bucking the trend explains why he signed up to a study and how it transformed his life.
Gulliver Waite was diagnosed with clinical depression at 19. For years, he struggled with extremely low mood, anxiety, frequent panic attacks and occasional paranoia.
“I put everything I could into working because it was basically all I could do,” he says. “I didn’t really go out and see people. I just stayed at home and slept a lot. My partner would wake me up and try to stop me from doing it, but I could easily sleep 18 hours in a day. I just retreated into myself basically.”
