It is genuinely a very sad shame that I got blocked by this guy. He is someone for whom I have a lot of respect and whom I’ve learned heaps from during the referendum years. I honestly try to understand the plight and motivation of people who vote Leave.

But there is only so much of that one can do before it starts to affect one’s mental health. Empathy and compassion are my two main drivers in life. But there comes a tipping point where you wonder, “what is this doing to me? Why am I giving so much to people who DGAF?”

This is what caused my breakdown in the first place back in April - constantly having to put other’s feelings and emotions before my own. I knew I couldn’t do that anymore. And the consequences of Brexit are something that I feel strongly about, being an EU citizen myself.

I keep getting told from certain Remain quarters that “we must reach out to the other side, we must stand with them, we must listen to them, we must hear their concerns”. The problem is, their concerns are all we’ve been hearing about.

Leave voters have a myriad of reasons why they voted the way they did - their economic situation, a chance for a better life for themselves, dislike of the EU, etc. And I kept getting told last night that “the con is still going”. On that I fully agree.

A Brexit narrative is still being spun by the Tory government and sadly most Leave voters are still hooked. They still do not know or fully comprehend the consequences of what they voted for, despite everything that is happening to the UK right now as a result.

You can have empathy and compassion for one’s personal situation, and indeed I do, that was never in doubt. But you also need to be able to draw a line when it comes to reaching out. All too often we are hearing “this isn’t what I voted for”.

The natural follow-up question is “what did you vote for then?”. And a lot of them will struggle to find an answer or maybe some of them will have their reasons. Some of them may realise the con, some will hold steadfastly onto the hope that their vote meant something.

A vote in a democracy is a huge responsibility. I have always believed that. Coming from Australia, where voting is compulsory, I take my civic duty seriously. It’s up to me to be informed on the issues, and I would expect that of my fellow citizens as well.

I would have been ineligible to vote in the Brexit referendum, being an EU citizen, but if I had voted, then obviously I would have treated it like any other election and informed myself. And I would hope that my fellow citizens would do that too.

Of course we all know the result of that referendum, indeed it is why the UK left the EU on 31 January this year. The ramifications of this will be felt for years to come. It is sad and tragic that many people still haven’t grasped the enormity of what is about to unfold.

So while I understand that there is a need to bridge some sort of divide between the two voting camps, there also needs to be the same level of acknowledgement from both sides about the challenges the UK faces. Again that comes back to one thing - empathy.

Leave voters have had many struggles, and sometimes it is very hard for them to see beyond those to get the wider picture. Having come from social housing myself, I can relate to a number of these struggles. It’s a pattern we see not just in the UK, but also back in Australia.