Unemployed Dad Who Tweeted Saying He Was 'Not OK' Receives Over 100,000 Replies

Last week, unemployed Edmund O'Leary, 51, posted on Twitter to say: "I am not OK. Feeling rock bottom. Please take a few seconds to say hello if you see this tweet. Thank you."

Edmund, from Epsom in Surrey, has been out of work for 18 months. He was previously working as a mental health worker, having also had jobs in sales, travel, and television engineering.

Appearing on ITV's This Morning he opened up about what prompted his post, saying: "On Friday I was feeling very depressed and isolated and I have a Twitter friend who writes similar things. I thought if it worked for him it could work for me.

"The phenomenal response is a lot about timing, it was daytime in America and a lot of people were sick and tired of all the bad news on Twitter.

"I will keep in touch with some of these people, I would need to employ staff to reply to every tweet."

In an interview with The Sunday Times he said he wanted to 'be honest' on social media about how he was feeling.

"Most days are really rubbish," he said. "And yesterday was another day I was feeling really low. I thought: 'I'm going to be honest.'''

He added: "This year has been absolutely horrendous. My mental health has really taken a battering.

Edmund had been hoping to see his son Patrick, 22, graduate with a first from university and take his other son Connor to Dublin to start his PhD, but couldn't do either because of the pandemic.

He told ITV: "Suffering with depression during normal times is one thing. But to end up suffering with depression during a global pandemic, where there is little good news, is devastating."