Video Transcription

Seeking help

Things really came to a head when I returned back to Canberra. So, around that time is when, yeah, I started talking to my dad and asking him to help me see a psychologist and get help, because it was just this turning point where I couldn’t keep living like this. I had always been trying to be someone who would self-fix, and my partner casually suggested, “Maybe you just need to speak to someone.”

There were a couple of things that started happening that really made me sort of move into seeking help. I was starting to notice the effect of how I was feeling was having on Mum, so I started going to therapy. It was a case of asking Mum for help and then weekly consultations for, you know, two and a half years.

That’s when I started my journey with medical professionals, and yeah, starting to let people in, talking to my friends and family, and slowly, over the next few years, building those really strong support networks. That was definitely a turning point in the way that I viewed my feelings and my emotions, and all of the symptoms that I had with my trauma. It wasn’t something to be judged or pitied, it was something to figure out how to manage.

What started with me, with my therapist asking me, “Why do you think you need to be here?” It’s more a case of them trying to understand why you were there in the first place, and again, it’s a good exercise for figuring out yourself why you should be there.

Video by BeyondBlue