A quarter of British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year, according to the Office for National Statistics. CARON KEMP speaks to Deborah Espect, who is trying to eliminate the taboos that come with it.

Deborah Espect had been in London for a few years, working in various bars and shops to pay the rent, when she was admitted to St Ann's Hospital's mental health ward suffering a breakdown.

Her move to the capital from Paris had been as a carefree 18-year-old wanting to have fun in a city with which she had fallen in love. But after also falling in love with the wrong person and finding herself embroiled in a bitter and damaging relationship, things began to fall apart.

In 2003, aged 23, Deborah was admitted to the mental health unit in St Ann's Road,Tottenham, where she was diagnosed with border-line personality disorder, a mental illness characterised by instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image and behaviour.

In the five days she spent there, Deborah began to find a way to deal with her situation. She said: "The experience was very testing. There was nothing to do apart from watch TV, and we were fed four times a day. It gives you a lot of time to think, which is not necessarily a good thing in that situation.

"It was good in a way to be around people who suffered from various mental illnesses. I learned a lot about that, and myself."

Although Deborah, who now lives in Felix Avenue, Crouch End, had turned her hand to writing before her admission to hospital, it was afterwards that her prose found a purpose.

She said: "Even though my writing is fictional it's still a way to express all the emotions I couldn't express when I spoke to people."

Deborah's debut novel, entitled Myself The Enemy, was published last year and there is no doubt that her own experiences have spilled into the book.

"It's about a girl of 24 who's diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and her experiences of it. At first she thinks she doesn't have it, and gradually she comes to terms with the fact that she might have something wrong with her."

Spurred on by this success, she joined Joinedupwriters, a writers group co-founded by a man she met on her therapy programme. Since then, she has written a number of short plays which have been performed at the Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington and the Soho Theatre.

In addition, one of the monologues she had performed through Joined-upwriters was produced as a short film and is currently being submitted to national and international festivals.

She added: "Joining Joinedupwriters has, in a way, made me feel like I've found my place in the world, because I am doing a lot of writing and I'm doing quite well."

Her latest venture, a play entitled Calling, premieres in less than two weeks.

Deborah said: "The play is set in a mental hospital and I've tried to make the characters as human as possible.

"I think my experience has allowed me to make people seem likeable, and not stereotype them.

"It's about three young people in a mental hospital and they don't want to be there. They learn to help each other without wanting to.

"The play ends positively, and that's what I wanted people to come out and think, that it can happen but it doesn't always have to end badly. I'm hoping it will be inspirational."

Deborah uses her fiction to deal with the much broader and bigger issue of mental health.

"A lot of people face a breakdown, but it's still a taboo so people don't know how to get help.

"I am hoping that with my book and my play, people will see it's ok to have mental health problems and we shouldn't try to ignore them."

So what does the future hold?

"I want to be a writer full-time and Calling, to me, is a huge step forward because it's my first full-length play, and regardless of whether or not it does well, I'm going to do everything I can to make it."

Calling will run from July 10-28 at The Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington. Tickets cost £12. For more information and to book visit www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk ckemp@london.newsquest.co.uk