A “MUCH-loved” and “smiley” man diagnosed with bipolar disorder died from an accidental overdose, an inquest heard.

Jamie Glenn had a long history of mental and physical health issues.

The 35-year-old lived in St James’s Street in Brighton and suffered with bipolar, anxiety and depression, alcohol addiction and ulcerative colitis, a reactive disease affecting the rectum.

He was taking quetiapine to treat his bipolar disorder.

While Mr Glenn was “much-loved” by his colleagues at American Express in Brighton and “enjoyed the security of having a job”, his physical and mental health issues influenced a heavy drinking problem, the Brighton inquest heard.

The police attended his flat on August 17 last year after concerns were raised by friends and medical staff who had not heard from him or seen him for about 48 hours.

This was described as unusual behaviour by his peers who attended the hearing.

Mr Glenn was found dead in his bathroom at 3.45pm that afternoon, surrounded by empty medication packets and empty bottles of alcohol.

His ex-partner and great friend Joanna Barnes told the hearing Mr Glenn would binge on alcohol when his ulcerative colitis flared up because it helped “block out the emotional and physical pain”.

But she said drinking alcohol would make him feel anxious and paranoid about forgetting to take his medication.

This resulted in him taking too much quetiapine on several occasions.

Ms Barnes said his alcohol consumption also triggered suicidal thoughts.

Despite his anxiety about living with ulcerative colitis, a post-mortem examination showed Mr Glenn had a mild form of it and his intestines were in an “impeccable” condition.

Although he had a higher level than normal of quetiapine in his blood, it was not a fatal amount.

A moderate amount of blood was found in his stomach indicating he suffered from hemorrhagic gastritis, bleeding in the stomach.

Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley recorded his medical cause of death to be hemorrhagic gastritis, toxicity of quetiapine and fatal cardiac arrhythmia.

She said: “I don’t believe he intentionally took a lot of medication in one go.

“But it seems he had too much alcohol and quetiapine in his system.

“In these circumstances you can have a cardiac arrhythmia.”

Ms Hamilton-Deeley said Mr Glenn’s chronic alcohol consumption, anxiety and depression and ongoing flare-ups of ulceric gastritis were contributory factors to his death.

She said: “I conclude his death as misadventure.

“He intended to drink alcohol and take his medication, but he did not intend for this to lead to his death.”

Since Mr Glenn’s death, Ms Barnes has set up two JustGiving donation pages for mental health charity Mind and animal charity Dog’s Trust in his name.

She said: “He was such a fighter.

“He just always wanted to smile, even when things were hard.”

His friend and long-term work colleague at American Express Sarah Tuckott said: “I worked with him for 12 years and he was so popular.

“He just wanted to get back to a normal life and back to work because that’s what kept him stable.

“Everyone liked him. It’s a sad time for all of us at work.”