Kiwi journalist's OE to Asia revealed a world of cultural pride and determination

Ayla Miller who is a young New Zealand journalist took some time off to do an overseas experience – on her own – to some of Asia’s amazing cultures and environments.

She found some of these nations' sense of national respect, pride and human determination, refreshing and heartening.

Here’s her story, from some questions we put to her about her travels:

Q: What area/s of the world have you travelled to and where exactly did you reside in?

A: I began in Delhi, India and spent two weeks exploring the 'golden triangle' in the north. I then travelled to Nepal where I spent seven weeks in total and five of them volunteering at a Women's School in Kathmandu. After that I got a job in Thailand teaching English. Lastly, resided in Ubon Ratchathani province in NE Thailand near where the Thai - Cambodia - Laos borders meet.

Q: What part of that country did you settle in (like urban or rural areas) and what kind of work were you doing there?

A: I lived in Phibun Mangsahan which is considered rural by Thai standards but there is still a small shopping mall, a KFC and a donut shop close by so after living in Dargaville, I felt like I was in the big smoke! There was farmland and rice paddy fields surrounding the town though, which were quite pretty.

I taught three to eight-year-olds conversational English.

 

STUDY TIME: Ayla with some of her young charges at school in Thailand.

 

Q: What are the main lifestyle, cultures, food, customs, differences or comparisons to what you are used to here in New Zealand?

A: Thai culture is very polite and saving face is very important. If you do something wrong it's very unlikely that anyone will tell you because it is considered rude. It's also very rude to show any anger in public which means generally speaking, Thai people are a very smiley bunch. There is a great deal of respect for the elderly, public servants, government officials and teachers.

I noticed uniformity, personal presentation and appearance was highly regarded. Group mentality is also something very different to New Zealand culture. It's rare to see a Thai person on their own and I'd never seen anyone eat alone in public. Routine and patriotism is also a big part of school life. Every morning the whole school has an assembly to sing the national anthem and raise the Thai flag. They also sing a song about the King and recite Buddhist prayers.

When in national mourning, everyone must wear black for one year following the King's passing.

Food is as important as family there and meal times are very social. At school the teachers all eat together and share a few dishes of noodles or rice and meat. In the evening street vendors appear selling anything you want on a stick along with steamed buns and cold drinks. It's also much cheaper and more convenient to eat out than to cook at home even for the locals.

There are many similarities which go beyond culture and reveal human nature in its purest form. One such example is how much love I saw at the school gates as the parents said good bye to their children. There are hugs and kisses and occasionally tears from the littlest students and plenty of proud smiles from the parents and grandparents as they watched their children run off to play with their friends.

Then there's the all-important phrase 'mai pen rai', which means either 'you're welcome', or 'no problem', depending on the context. It's the equivalent of New Zealand's 'she'll be right' and is more of an attitude than a phrase.

I'm of two minds as to whether Thailand is a struggling country. The roads and general infrastructure aren't the best but by Nepali standards they are amazing and by New Zealand standards they are about the same if not better than some parts of rural Northland!

I hadn't seen any homeless people in the town where I lived and no beggars. On some of my scooter adventures down the farm roads, there were some houses that looked quite modest and ramshackle but most of them were large, comfortable and modern. The children never go hungry as they are fed a good meal of rice, meat and fruit or a sweet coconut or jelly dessert every day at school.

To be honest I think they eat better than a lot of New Zealand children.

Q: What made you decide to go there initially?

A: The main reason I ended up in Thailand, was because I wanted to save money to continue my travels around South East Asia. After India and Nepal, it was either get a job or go home and I wasn't ready to go home at that stage.

I completed a Teaching English as a Foreign Language course before I left NZ as a backup plan, in case I needed to work, as I knew it was fairly quick and easy to get a job as a teacher. I chose Thailand, because it was quite central to other places I wanted to visit and like most tourists who come to Thailand, I was lured in by images of lush green rainforests and stunning tropical beaches.

Q: What do you see as the main challenges people there face every day?

A: There is quite a good standard of living in Thailand, at least in the town I was based in.

India and Nepal were a different story. There, it is quite an obvious divide between the rich and the poor. If you are born poor it's almost impossible to escape that cycle.

For women, it's even more difficult because they are expected to get married young and are often taken out of school to care for siblings and the household. At the women's school in Nepal, I met women aged from 14-60 who could hardly read or write in Nepali, let alone in English.

At the same school I met an 18-year-old girl who had lost her father a few years ago.

My host mum told me that one day he just didn't come home and no one knew why. The girl had been pulled out of school to care for her siblings. She turned up to the women's school every day immaculately groomed and worked so hard whilst juggling everything else that is expected of a Nepali woman.

 

DETERMINED: Women are determined to complete their education at the women's school in Kathmandu, Nepal.

There was another girl of 14 who had been sick for a few years and consequently, missed out on a lot of school. She travelled for one and a half hours, one way, every day to attend the women's school. Having been on the public transport in Nepal, I can tell you this is no easy feat and her dedication to education is astounding.

Q: What kept you there or what did you really like about being there?

A: I really liked Thai people and the natural environment there.

Q: Was it a culture shock when you first arrived? If so, how did you move past that, or manage to get through that?

A: There was a little bit of a culture shock when I arrived in Bangkok but it was mainly because I had just come from Kathmandu and they are two very different worlds.

Bangkok was so clean and orderly in comparison. I'm sure that's the only time anyone will describe Bangkok as clean and orderly but by comparison it really is!

Delhi and Kathmandu were chaotic but thrilling.

Q: How long did it take you to feel at home and were the locals helpful in making you feel at home?

A: It took about a month to feel at home in Phibun Mangsahan.

The locals were really lovely and our landlady took great care of us teachers. I lived in the same block of flats as six other foreign teachers from Canada, England, South Africa, Philippines and Australia, so that also helped me feel a bit more at home.

Just having people who understood was so valuable. 

Q: Do you think you will return there?

A: It's unlikely that I'll go back to this part of Thailand but never say never. 

Q: What have you learned most from the experience?

A: I feel like there's an expectation from people at home for me to say 'oh we don't know how lucky we are in New Zealand'.

That's the usual narrative behind the typical Kiwi OE.

It's widely believed that young New Zealanders must leave New Zealand to fully appreciate what we have. I guess in some respects I agree with that and it certainly has made me grateful to have New Zealand to go home to but it's also made me want to hold our government to higher standards.

It is unacceptable that in New Zealand, children are sent to school hungry and that some families still struggle to make ends meet.

This experience has made me care even more about protecting what we have in New Zealand and making sure we don't slip backwards.

Ayla left her job teaching English at the school to continue her backpacking travels to explore the rest of Thailand.

She is now back in New Zealand working in media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is now the time to consider monetary reform in New Zealand?

POLITICAL OPINION

With New Zealand nurses protesting bitterly about not being paid what they're worth culminating in possible strike action tomorrow and a homelessness crisis reaching staggering proportions:

Is now the right time to look at monetary reform?

The Social Credit Party is proactively trying to get the New Zealand Government's attention to the idea of financial reform, as this week, acting Prime Minister Winston Peters, told a press conference - it's not that the government 'wouldn't' meet the nurses' pay requirements but that it 'couldn't'.

So why can't we meet the financial needs of staff in essential services such as healthcare?

Gloria Bruni puts in a letter to the Northern Advocate Newspaper today, what I and I'm sure many other people are wondering.

She says she had believed the money system came from the government.

Ms Bruni says that according to economic commentator Bernard Hickey, money is invented out of nowhere by private banks.

The Party has been talking about this disturbing reality for some time but it appears no one's been listening.

Ms Bruni goes on to say the banks then have the gall to charge lenders interest on this money, which last year netted Australian-owned banks, $5 billion in profit after tax.

Perhaps there's a better way.

Food for thought.

Meanwhile, Social Credit leader Chris Leitch, takes a look at the rich entrepreneurs who try to buy their way into parliament.

In his comment below, Mr Leitch talks about the demise of Gareth Morgan's Opportunities Party and the values of the Social Credit Party. 

Yet Another Party Dashes Kiwi’s Hopes

The demise of the Opportunities Party is another example of a rich entrepreneur having “a go” at politics without any real commitment to a philosophy or core policy.

Gareth Morgan joins a long list of similar people who thought money was going to buy them an easy road into parliament and who gave up when the going got tough.

Bob Jones and Colin Craig were others.

They were, as his party name suggested, “opportunists”, who promised much and didn’t deliver.

There was no solid foundation that people could commit to, that would make them contribute time and money at great personal cost over many years.

While Social Credit hasn’t had rich donors and corporate backing that would have allowed it to buy media time and tour the country like Mr Morgan, it has survived the test of time.

It has done so because of its commitment to reforming the money system to deliver a better life for people – particularly middle and low income earners – rather than bankers, money manipulators, and corporates.

First formed in 1953 it it has proved has stickability and commitment to principle and that’s a rare quality in New Zealand politics.

In doing so it has proved Bob Jones wrong.

His taunts about “Skodas and crimplene suits” have come back to haunt him.

Skodas are now a luxury vehicle, and monetary reform is gaining support internationally from economists, professors and commentators.

Its time is coming.

 

For further comment contact Chris Leitch, phone 021922098

 

See www.tellmemore.org.nz  for numerous commentators who support monetary reform.

Feel free to comment on this post in the comments box. Beating the Odds would love to know what you think about monetary reform and its effects on many issues directly affecting people.

We would also be really interested to know your thoughts on the nurses pay situation and some of the country's biggest social issues, such as homelessness and mental health.

BTO

More hope for mental illness survivors

 

Being able to live with the effects of mental health conditions such as; depression, anxiety, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTS and PTSD), seems to come down to how we think and to a degree, how we live our lives.

 

Sounds simple, but it isn’t.

 

United States born and based medical doctor, Neil Nedley, saw a statistical and ever-worsening need for creating help to assist a growing, global problem.

 

Effective programme: The Nedley Depression and Anxiety Recovery Program offers more help for mental illness sufferers.

 

What his research says is - a quarter of the US population, suffers from disordered mental health issues. That’s a lot of people.

 

So, he decided to come up with a programme, the Nedley Depression and Anxiety Recovery Program, to get on top of these often, debilitating and exhausting illnesses.

 

Exhausting illnesses: Conditions such as anxiety can be ongoing and become tiring to sufferers, disrupting all or many areas of life, including sleep.

 

He bases his programme, which is currently being run in four New Zealand centres including Dargaville in Northland, around ‘hits’ or areas of an individual’s life, which have strong bearings on the person’s mental health – even including developmental and genetic problems; which can’t be changed.

 

Nedley looks at ways to change the individual’s current focus on what has gone on in the past and how the person processes present and future events in his/her life.

 

Example scenario; your wife/husband/partner breaks up with you. The jilted person without help may say, ‘this is the end. I can’t stand that this has happened. It’s devastating’.

 

Nedley’s idea of processing that event in a healing way, could be; ‘yes he/she broke up with me and it’s very sad indeed but it’s not the end of the world and just because my wife/husband/partner has left me, doesn’t mean I am unlovable.’

 

Nedley stresses, this positive self-talk isn’t designed to minimise the event - which can be very difficult emotionally and has practical ramifications as well - but the healing self-talk gives the jilted person a way of being able to, ‘make room’, for the loss and allows him/her to be able to live with the effects of it.

 

Through an 8-week course, people can go along to a weekly, two-hour workshop.

For the first hour, they are shown a video, where Nedley talks about his researched, ‘way out’ of depression and anxiety; including numerous statistics backing up the emotional and physical effects of these illnesses; as well as the cost to individual households of sufferers, cost to wider communities, to health systems and more widely, to nations.

Attendees fill in a workbook during the video address, which helps them to understand in more detail, the information in the video.

 

In the second hour, attendees are split off into groups; where facilitators encourage them to look deeper in to aspects of the programme.

 

Module by module, over the 8 weeks, attendees fill out questionnaires and make lists of how aspects of the programme could be applied to their lives. Attendees are also encouraged to share their experiences if they wish. However, there is no pressure at all to do this.

 

At the conclusion of the programme, attendees graduate with a presentation dinner, put on by the facilitating organisation.

 

In New Zealand, the programme is run in only four centres so far; Dargaville, Hamilton, Blenheim and Christchurch and is facilitated by the Seventh Day Adventist Church and there is a strong encouragement for attendees to have an anchoring belief system working in their lives.

 

It appears even usual health-based mental health programmes, also encourage people to have some kind of strong personal belief system, such as mindfulness, yoga, meditation – the list goes on (whatever is right for the individual).

 

Mental health problems can bring with them, complete life-altering situations. And having an anchor for the inner self, seems to give people something to hang on to, to steady themselves, while trying to survive the turbulence mental illness brings with it.

 

There is a cost to the Nedley programme, but it is well worth it! Check it out.

 

For more information about the Nedley Depression & Anxiety Recovery Program

Contact Lisa Liggett on 0211179667, phone or text.

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

‘Seek help before it’s too late’, urge mental illness survivors

I have been involved with the mental health sector in various ways for the past six years.

 

Up until early this year, I was mostly seeing counsellors.

 

These years have been spent proactively, trying to find something that would flick the switch back to normality.

 

Mental Health has been featured a lot in the media lately, because of so many people who find they can no longer cope, with the over-stresses of life.

 

There was a time when, I could never understand how some people seemed to breeze through whatever life threw at them, while others just broke.

 

That question became very personal, when I found myself being one of those broken people.

 

So, in order to try to help myself and others, I have decided to tell my story.

 

Before starting, I would just like to say, I have had the great pleasure of walking the past 11 months of my journey, with other people who have, ‘broken’, just like me.

 

I can tell you, they are some of the most amazing, caring, people I have ever met and I am truly honoured to know them.

 

I will be telling my story, of course, fully identified but there will be other people’s stories included in this post, who will remain anonymous, to protect them from stigma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, mental health is still socially and professionally, kept in the taboo closet. And sadly, it would seem, that is where many would rather it stay.

 

These people are from various areas of Northland, so if you think you know the story, many mental health situations are alike, because people are surviving similar conditions. However, how each one is affected, is very different.

 

Surviving is a word used to describe someone who continues to live after a disaster, or some kind of traumatic event.

 

This describes the effects of mental illness very well.

 

My story started six years ago.

 

I arrived at work one day, in a media management position. I knew who I was and where I was but nothing else.

 

I had completely lost the ability to know how to do my job, or even what it consisted of.

 

A very, very frightening experience.

 

Another staff member asked me if I was alright, as I was walking aimlessly around the office, unable to think what to do.

 

I fudged my way through the day until I went to a doctor’s appointment, that had already been made the week before. You see, I had been visiting the doctor for stress-related issues weekly, for some time.

 

I was not prescribed medication. I have always believed, medication only band-aid’s the problem and you have to get to the root of the issue, before it can be fixed, or so you can at least live with it.

 

Don’t get me wrong. Some people could not function without the right medication. My conditions were different.

 

My wonderfully supportive doctor and I agreed that I needed a major shift in my life circumstances, particularly my working life, or I would be very sick – if I wasn’t already.

 

So, on medical advice, I left my job that day, jumping out of a $900 a week position, to nothing at $200 a week. And as you can imagine, one I has to make such a drop in income, work.

 

Now, I do voluntary work when able and run this blog as a publication, telling people’s stories and I provide writing services, for my own interest and keeping my hand in.

 

I have also joined with some other survivors to start a support group, which is overseen by health professionals at the local hospital.

 

Medically, I have been advised that working at my own pace is best, which is easier said than done.

 

It took me until only recent months, to accept I had become a different person. I kept trying to find my old self, especially professionally. The one who, at one time, could take a lot of pressure and who often thrived under it.

 

I also feel the social pressure of picking up my life where I’d left off.

 

People, with the best intentions, still keep asking me, ‘what are you doing now’, expecting me to tell them something exciting, seeing I’d been a journalist for the past 20 or so years. And of course journalists are always perceived to be doing exciting things in their jobs. I did have a great career, having spoken to and written about, so many amazing people.

 

Little do they know that I battle every day to regain my confidence and self worth.

 

But I refuse to succumb to the conditions I’ve been diagnosed with, so I insist on being ‘capable’. It isn’t a facade, what you see is what you get, with me.

 

However, some of my circumstances began to wear me down again and an industrious hospital social worker, in recent months, suggested that I look at going onto the long-term benefit, which was difficult because, I hated admitting I needed to, to give myself more time to recover.

 

So, a mental health specialist fought tooth and nail and thanks to her, I was accepted as a recipient of what is now called, the Supported Living benefit (long-term). At this stage, I am not looking at this being forever.

 

Here’s the thing.

 

Because mentally ill people are broken, where bandages cannot be worn, apparently according to some opinions, we aren’t ill.

 

But people are ill, with conditions that are sometimes, irreparable.

 

I have been told that I have symptoms related to a condition called, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I have also been diagnosed with high end depression and anxiety/panic disorder, among other things. I have just found, I may have had the PTSD symptoms since I was three years old but they are not sure.

 

This was a shock.

 

But I am pretty proud of myself that although I haven’t made a huge mark on this world, I’ve done incredibly well, with these symptoms, for that long.

 

But sadly, it ended in a major break down.

 

I now have to do things a very different way, to how I used to and I am constantly being advised to not put myself back into the flames that burned me.

 

I am someone who wants to find my way forward in life, LIVING WITH these issues, if I may not be able to get rid of them.

 

The point I want to make in telling this story and especially with the last sentence is; if you feel like everything is mounting up and you feel a bit like you want to climb the walls, it does not mean you are broken or breaking; but don’t leave it, or try to BOSS yourself out of it.

 

Don’t be ashamed or afraid to go and talk to your GP about getting in front of people who can help. It is totally confidential. As the great former All Black and depression survivor, John Kirwan says in his book, ‘All Blacks Don’t Cry’, if the people around you ‘don’t get’ what you’re going through, go and find someone who does get it!

 

But please, don’t do what I did and tell yourself, or let anyone else tell you to, ‘get over it’. You need help to do that.

 

In my case, I told myself to, ‘get over it’, for a good three years, before I broke.

 

I even told myself after breaking, ‘a few weeks off and I’ll be back into something else’. That doesn’t work either. Sometimes these breaks are irreversible. No one can tell me whether mine is or not. The jury is still out on that.

 

At the moment, I take it one day at a time.

 

So again, I implore anyone out there who is feeling like they may be close to being unable to cope.

 

Stop, step back and observe your situation, then as calmly as you can, take the necessary steps to ensure you don’t go down the same path I have, or the other people who are telling their stories here.

 

You may be able to stay in your current situation with help but you may not. Only you and your therapists know that.

 

I wish you well in your future endeavours.

 

I continue to hold on to hope and I believe I will find my way forward one day. It’s just finding that switch to flick the lights back on.

 

I also have a message for employers: I’m sure there are more of you out there, who are fair, caring and understanding and who realise, you get the best out of employees who are valued, cared about and respected.

 

But to the few who think employees are there to be mistreated, bullied and stressed out, let me tell you, that you DO have a right to people’s 100 % attention to your business - during business hours, you do have a right to 100 % of their skill but you DO NOT have any right AT ALL to their souls.

 

The mental state of a person IS their inner self and that needs to be protected at all costs, despite the financial bottom line!

 

 

 

 

Other People’s Journeys

 

What caused my mental health issues was repeated rejection from both adoptive and birth family. 

 

What followed was that I became suicidal, several times throughout my life.

 

I was referred to counsellors, psychiatrists, I had been admitted to hospital for a week and was put on anti-depressants several times.

 

I have never had a proper diagnosis but they say I have depression and anxiety.

 

My anxiety stops me from doing things I enjoy and being fear-free, as well as living a full life, for myself and my kids.

 

The condition gives me heart palpitations and gives me body aches the doctors can’t explain why.

 

Methods I use to get through include; distraction and keeping myself busy, so I don’t think too much about it all. I use the breathing technique when I feel fear coming on.

 

In future, I hope to be free from depression and anxiety and suicidal thoughts and feelings.

 

I wouldn't mind helping others who suffer with this, as I know what it is like. I have been there myself and know it’s not great. But out of it, things can be so much better.

 

I have saved two people in my younger years, from suicide and I wish I can save a lot more.

 

My advice to anyone in this situation, is to face up to your problems, rather than running away from them.

 

If you leave it too long, it just snow balls and gets worse. It’s better to get it out in the open and talk about it, with the right people.

 

 

People who don’t understand can send you right back, to square one.

                                                                  

-Anonymous

 

 My mental health journey started when I began to have problems at work many years ago.

This caused me to have significant issues with not sleeping, then falling into a deep depression, culminating in four months off work.

I eventually left and found another job, about a year later.

Recently, I had difficulties again, in a totally different work place - this is several years later.

I went to the doctor, who gave me some time off work on stress leave, then I returned to work.

Antidepressants were prescribed and I had to have medication to calm my nerves and to help me sleep.

I had warning signs and felt what they call “the fizz”, (when someone is feeling high end anxiety). I realise now, I was heading for a break down. 

I was offered to go to a course called Coping Skills, so I went along.

Meanwhile, health professionals diagnosed me with depression.

After a day’s work, I would go home and cry myself to sleep. I seemed to also have brain fog, finding it hard to cope with everyday life generally.

My thoughts seemed to go round and round in my head. I felt anxious, I lost my joy of life, my appetite and I felt angry all the time.

My relationship was also under pressure.

Going to work was really hard and all I wanted to do was stay at home, knowing I had to pay the bills.

But, throughout, I have found yoga very therapeutic, with Northland yoga instructor, Tracey Horne.

As mentioned, Mental Health’s Coping Skills course is awesome – it’s totally confidential, with loads of tools which are simple and easy to apply for different life challenges. I recommend this course to anyone, who has difficulty in coping with life in general.

I have been able to decrease the medication I was on, with the guidance of my GP, after a few sessions of the course.

With the various tools I’ve been able to put into practise, I haven’t had to leave my job. Without these tools, I would probably be in the secure unit in Whangarei.

My advice is, little steps are better than none. I now have my confidence back and I’m able to carry on and enjoy life again. Live, laugh and love, is now my motto.

The thing is, you’re not alone and not the only one going through a difficult time.

You are welcome to share your experiences, should you choose to and you go away feeling you’ve learned and achieved something.

It’s about rebuilding your confidence, positivity and having something good to look forward to, while you are recovering.

Northland mental health has amazing staff.

Don’t wait until you hit rock bottom, to get in touch with your GP for referral to a mental health professional, a coping skills course and a support group, if you are struggling with stress or just not coping in the work place, or with family issues.

Take it from me; encouragement, empowerment and confidence are a much better way to go, to continue to get the best out of your life.

                                                                             -Anonymous

 

My situation came about from when I was quite young.

When I was in my early to mid teens, my appendix burst and later, I found I and a sibling, both had sensitivities to a vaccine – namely the tetanus injection.

But what caused a major breakdown about four years ago, which rendered me unable to function at all, or remember the actual events that happened, was inordinate job pressure and the changing of medications; including my being put on and taken off certain prescription drugs – one of which, should have been reduced gradually and which I have been told culminated in my suffering seizures.

I was juggling a home-based business, transporting children to and from school and pre-school and working over 50-hour weeks.

All of that, together with historical post-natal depression and caring for elderly, sick relatives, added up to the mental health crisis that led to my being admitted to an acute, mental health, secure unit for three months.

I don’t remember most of what happened to me, other than my sister and my son coming to see me and we had to visit in a courtroom-type place at the unit.

The courtroom was where they also assessed pre-release prisoners, who were being put on medication to stop them from reoffending. I was put in the same area as them.

During that time, they started electric shock treatment on me, administered under anaesthetic. I believe I must have had around 20 treatments, over the course of a year. The reason for my being given this treatment, was that I was unable to talk, think, interact and I could hardly even walk. I can only describe it as being like a zombie.

The seizures I’ve had over the years, had been caused by various situations, such as; changes in medication, flashing lights, fast movement on visual equipment. I’ve also been told I’ve had a seizure while sleeping and once in the shower. Thankfully, there have been people around to help when they’ve happened.

I was diagnosed with a deep depressive condition called serious catatonic depression.

At one time during my very dark depressive days, I became so frightened of being arrested because on top of everything, I bought a cell phone that had been owned by someone previously, who owed money on it and I kept getting rung up by debt collectors. That eventually got sorted out, thank goodness.

Once I had become stabilized in the secure unit, I was placed into a sub-acute centre – a home away from home, to convalesce, until I was able to go home but still requiring 24-hour care by my family.

The good news is, I’m heaps better now. I don’t feel I have depression any more and I now take medication that is helpful.

I do a course called Coping Skills, which I find really helpful in teaching people with mental health issues, how to deal with their problems.

I also do yoga, I am interested in alternative health remedies and the nurses, therapists and health professionals are only a phone call away. When I first came out of the sub-acute centre, I was visited weekly by mental health staff.

I still can’t remember some things and I’ve had to relearn a lot.

I see myself in future years, being back at some kind of work, perhaps social work or the alternative health sector and the depression will have completely gone for good.

My advice to anyone who may feel stressed, under a lot of pressure, or that they feel like they are climbing the walls; get into a mental health programme by talking to your GP about being referred to a coping course and support group. They are entirely confidential and safe.

Take someone as an advocate for you, to your doctor (because sometimes mental illness survivors tend to minimise problems because of denial), see Work and Income, getting legal advice, or anything where you may not be feeling able to handle things.

Get in front of the right people, so you can get the right help.

                                                                   -Anonymous

 

I had a major break-down in my life due to undue pressure being placed on me, in my career.

My mental health condition rules my life from go to woe at the moment.

Without the support group and my friends, I would have succumbed to it.

I would have been very lost and thrown everything away.

I will keep going, I will remain on this planet and I will survive this. I have to.

My advice to anyone who feels things are getting on top of them, seek help NOW!

For the sake of family, friends, your own health and well-being, wake up and smell the roses.

Don’t think you’re going get through it, unless you seek help.

You can’t fix this yourself. It’s bigger than you and you don’t realise how big a problem you are dealing with and when you realise it, it’s way too late and you can lose everything that’s dear to you.

                                                                             -Anonymous

 

I started having a break down after losing my father and two other close family members.

It all built up on me.

I do artwork and try to chill out. I go onto Facebook, or ring one of my support workers.

I have found the Coping Skills course helped me. I try to breathe through it all, to cope.

My advice to anyone going through the same thing; try to find people who have gone through this situation themselves; but get some help.

I’m confident that one day, I’ll get better.

                                                                   -Anonymous

 

 Mental health disorders

Post Traumatic Stress/Disorder (PTSD): Is a psychological reaction to experiencing or witnessing a significantly stressful, traumatic or shocking event.

Depression: Is an illness that can affect how you feel and behave for weeks or months at a time. When you are depressed, your low mood lasts, affecting your sleep, relationships, job and appetite.

Anxiety: Someone suffering from generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) may be up all night worrying about a disturbing situation they’ve seen on television for example, that people who don’t have the condition, can put out of their minds. GAD sufferers may continue to worry, for days, about what to do if a horrific situation occurred to, or near them. People who experience this level of anxiety, may worry about many other, day to day things; e.g. finances, family, the car, or pets. Sometimes even thinking about how to get through the day makes them anxious. This is mentally and physically exhausting. Other conditions can be common in these sufferers, including; depression, panic attacks and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Reference – Mental Health Foundation (New Zealand)

www.mentalhealth.org.nz

Contact numbers 24 hours

Need to talk? Free call or text four digit number 1737 – www.1737.org.nz

Depression helpline free call 0800 111 757 – www.depression.org.nz/

Anxiety New Zealand Trust 24 hour support line – Free call 0800 269 4389 – www.anxiety.org.nz

Other useful crisis lines

Lifeline – Free call 0800 543 354 or (09) 522 29999

Suicide Prevention Helpline – Free call 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)

Youthline – Free call 0800 376 633

Samaritans – Free call 0800 726 666