Last month the 65-year-old Southampton father-of-two who had invested up to £1 million with corrupt Wall Street fund manager Bernard Madoff, shot himself.

Experts foresee a looming mental health disaster for Britain as savings are wiped out, property prices plummet and jobs vanish.

Calls to Anxiety UK's helpline have doubled since the beginning of the year and the Government is frantically speeding up investment into psychological therapies.

This week is Depression Awareness Week and campaigners are encouraging people to take their mental health seriously. Depression accounts for more than 2,615 deaths and the loss of 100 million work days each year.

Psychotherapist Richard O'Connor author of 'Happiness: The Thinking Person's Guide' points out that as society has become more prosperous, rates of anxiety, depression and stress-related disorders have accelerated in the US and Europe.

"Our biggest mistake in life is believing that 'getting what we want' will make us happy," he says. "In the US, sociologists have been asking people the exact same question, the exact same way, for the last five decades. 'On a scale of one to five, how happy would you say you are?' And every single year, fewer people say they are happy."

By 2020, the World Health Organisation predicts that depression will be the second leading cause of death.

The pursuit of wealth is often seen as a root cause of this unhappiness. Not only do we feel obligated to earn more, but escalating levels of wealth cause everyone to feel inadequate. A recent report by the Mental Health Foundation found that inequalities between the rich and the poor lead to perpetually high levels of stress, depression, high blood pressure and other medical problems.

But according to Mr O'Connor, all this is perfectly understandable.

"Humans are not designed to be happy and satisfied," he says. "Evolution keeps us wanting more. Your caveman brain wants you to believe that you'll be happy when you get rich, beat your buddies, rise to the top, and have the biggest house.

"The real secret of happiness is learning to be more systematically observant of what really does make you feel good."

Mr O'Connor says the brain is constantly forming new cells, which means we can all make changes to the way we think.

He believes in meditation rather than medication and says feeling happy is a skill.

"The more you practise being happy, the easier you make it for yourself to be happy in the future. Likewise, the more you practise being depressed, the easier you make it for yourself to be depressed."