Graham Aitchison
Graham Aitchison is 30 years old and grew up in Wellington, New Zealand. Graham has struggled with overpowering fear, depression and anxiety in his life. His relationships with those around him suffered and his childhood was very hard. He felt confused, angry and misunderstood on a daily basis. During his teenage years, his schoolwork suffered and he began drinking alcohol. He was unmotivated and did not enjoy life; it was more about simply surviving each day. Graham made a faith-based commitment at age 18 as he felt that he could go no further in his life on the path that he had been walking down. This was the turning point in his life, his launch into wellness. He was officially diagnosed with clinical depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder at age 20 and was told he would be dependent on antidepressant medication for life. However, this diagnosis did not resonate with Graham as he believed wholeheartedly that he was going to overcome his spiritual and emotional problems. Graham's journey has taken him far deeper than most and beyond the realms of conventional thinking into a spiritual universe he was deeply entangled in, but didn't really know existed. He has learned to understand the spiritual and emotional driving forces behind mental illness in his life and has begun to find real answers for his struggles. He believes that most of the practices utilized today regarding depression are only helping people to manage the problem and make it easier to deal with, rather than helping them to rid themselves of it altogether. Graham has been deeply passionate about finding real answers to the driving forces behind his mental suffering in order to heal. He has published "No Way Out But Through", a book written about Graham's journey over the years. The title is symbolic of Graham's firmly held belief that the darkest and most painful areas of one's life must be fully walked through in order to completely heal from them.
