Ian worked at the Job Centre in his hometown of Macclesfield, Cheshire, finding positions for people with special needs. He was particularly unsettled by an epileptic girl, desperate to find a job, regularly coming in and often suffering seizures. Eventually she stopped coming to the job centre, and Ian assumed she had got a job. But he later found out she died of an epileptic seizure.
Ian himself was later diagnosed with epilepsy. At the time the medication available for epilepsy wasn't very effective and had very serious side effects- moodiness, anxiety and loss of purpose being some.
He used to drink before performing, which also explains his on-stage fits, with the alcohol being a seizure trigger. Also being seizure triggers were flashing lights, lack of sleep and stress all of which Ian was vulnerable to. This undoubtedly contributed to his signature maelstrom movements on stage.
The medication would have exacerbated Ian's depression, meanwhile he was in the midst of a fractured relationship with his wife, who was filing for a divorce.
He killed himself at 23, a month after his daughters first birthday.