A KEY member of Pepper Money’s management team has shared his highly personal experiences of overcoming alcohol abuse following the breakdown of his marriage for the latest Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter (MIMHC) interview series.

Paul Adams, Sales Director at Pepper Money, hopes that his full and frank disclosure of this traumatic episode in his life will inspire others working in the mortgage sector to seek appropriate help “without hesitation” if this becomes necessary.

Paul talked to MIMHC Co-founder and Group Sales Director at Crystal Specialist Finance, Jason Berry, as part of the not-for-profit organisation’s latest “Keeping the Mental Health Conversation Going” video.

The forum provides a platform for industry leaders to share insights and strategies for promoting best practice mental wellbeing in the workplace.

The turning point for Paul came after he spent a month at a hospital operated by The Priory, which provides specialist mental health care, focusing specifically on his cognitive behaviour with therapists, his diet with nutritionists as well as the importance of exercise.

“As far as most people are concerned, I’ve always held my life together successfully,” explained Paul.

“But, for me, the key moment arose five years ago when I made a big life decision and decided to leave my wife and family and moved out of the family home.

“There was enormous change – and guilt and feelings of real loneliness came with that.

“This started me on the path of drinking more than I’d ever done previously to numb the pain.”

As a direct result of his excessive drinking, Paul’s work suffered and he also found himself increasingly leaning on colleagues to complete his workload.

Paul had the courage to discuss what was unravelling in his life with Pepper Money’s senior management team and subsequently decided to enter The Priory for four weeks, where he embarked on group therapy and one-on-one counselling.

In MIMHC’s new video, Paul cites cognitive therapy – when participants openly discuss the link between how they’re feeling and subsequent behaviours – as well as the importance of nutrition and exercise as being “transformative”.

After successfully turning his life around, he now proactively supports both colleagues from Pepper Money and others from across the mortgage industry by sharing his experiences and key personal takeaways.

In forthcoming videos, Jason will be chatting with key figures across the mortgage industry about how they keep the mental health conversation going in their businesses.

(MIMHC) is a not-for-profit organisation that was founded to raise awareness of employees’ mental health and how the industry can take positive action to improve it.

MIMHC is made up of 7 co-founding firms plus over 100 signatory companies across the mortgage industry that represent over 20,000 individuals. All these firms agree to be bound by MIMHC’s 6 Governing Rules which apply best practice health and wellbeing guidelines and are summarised as ‘The MIMHC Charter’.