When I arrived back at the comfort of my own home I would basically be completely worn out and was basically like a zombie – my social life was virtually non-existant. I would then decide to go to bed early but would basically just lay their worrying about the next day. This could last for hours on end and at times would last all of the night.

Luckily I am now self-employed working within various sectors including stammering therapy, business cost reduction and DVD duplication.

I have read that plenty of sleep is a good way at reducing levels of stress, the question is, how does one get to sleep in the first place?

For all the stress I had to endure, I certainly was not paid enough. The people who I worked with, including the team leaders, did not treat me with as much respect as I felt I deserved. This period was a very unhappy stage of my life and my health started to become affected.

I wanted to leave this company a lot earlier than the time that I eventually did, the problem was that I did not feel that I could afford to. I needed to think of a way of escaping this madness. There was absolutely no way that I could continue to work for these and with these idiots. As previously stated it had started to affect my health as well as my overall level of self-confidence. I started to save as much as I could possibly afford to on a monthly basis and believed that within 6 months I could be out of there. At the same time I started to look at finding alternative work and thought long and hard about which career path I wanted to take.

On the day that I left this job, I will never forget my journey home. I could not stop smiling, I was so relieved that this nightmare was over once and for all.