I’m pretty lucky, I had 27 years with 4 grandparents. By 28, I’ll still be lucky with 2.
July 14th, my anxiety was spiking as I was scheduled to sit my first law exam. Mum came home, tears in her eyes, I said “what’s wrong?”. She said “I don’t know if I should tell you”. “Just tell me”, I replied.
I would hope most of you are aware of the current same-sex marriage (SSM) postal vote; to be more specific, a plebiscite. A non-binding survey, used to gauge the position of the Australian electorate. The last national plebiscite was in 1977 to determine what our national song would be. The only other national plebiscites were in 1916, and 1917 regarding military service. Considering our current level of technology, the fact that this is neither mandatory, nor binding, as well as costing roughly $122 million, the question of why ‘bother with a plebiscite?’ is a reaction many have had.
Today is International Nurses Day. A day many of us wouldn’t know about.
I owe a lot to the nurses I’ve crossed paths with. In fact if any of us have ever had to experience the medical world and walk into a hospital either for ourselves, or a loved one, we owe more to the nurses we crossed paths with than we realise.
More gratitude, more appreciation, and more respect.
Graduating university; a significant achievement for some, an inevitability for others, and an impossibility for many.
I never imagined finishing university. Actually, that’s not entirely true.
Growing up, especially during high school, university was an inevitability for me. After all, that’s what you do, you go to high school, finish your exams, go to university and get a degree, and then get a job. That’s what we are taught to do, that’s the way the education system is structured. I never imaged any other path was realistic, let alone actually possible.
Today is international Women’s Day, and so to the women in my life...
Dear women,
If there’s anything I know it’s that you have had, and continue to have an immeasurable role in my life. I quite literally wouldn’t be here without you – in fact none of us would be.
Thank you for bringing me into this world, and more importantly for keeping me in it.
You have loved me when I was unlovable; you listened when no one else would.
The mental health journey of 24-year-old university student Adam Schwartz has taken him to the darkest places since he was 10, but "hope for the future" is what saved him from severe depression.
Mr Schwartz — who is now an author, speaker and Black Dog volunteer youth presenter based in Sydney — said he had suicidal thoughts from a young age.
"Mum has reminded me that when I was 10, I told her my heart is black, my body is full of anger, and that I wish I was dead," he said.
Full article written by Ben Pike can be found at The Sunday Telegraph.
Coincidently, the previous week I was invited to be a guest lecturer at the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry. I was there to mostly share my insights into what it is like as a young person going through the medical system with a mental illness, and to eventually receive electro convulsive therapy (ECT).
FOR many months during his teenage years, Adam Schwartz could hardly get out of bed, let alone leave the house. He would cry himself to sleep every night, and couldn’t bring himself to look in the mirror in the morning.
Schwartz, now 24, traces his crippling battle with depression back to when he was 10.
“Mum reminds me that I said to her one day, ‘My heart is black, my body is full of anger, and I wish I was dead.’ At 10,” he tells The AJN.
Article written by Michael McGirr for The Sydney Morning Herald - smh.com.au. He reviews 3 new books relating to depression. 'mum, i wish i was dead', 'Reasons to Stay Alive', and 'The good Greek Girl'.
"Each of these three personal memoirs has elements that are truly frightening. They all describe a pain so intense and surly that the writer was prepared to die just to get a break from its irrational demands.Yet the very existence of these books is proof of a victory, if that's the right word."
Interview with Linda Morris for the The Sydney Morning Herald - smh.com.au.
"Personal accounts like Schwartz's take courage and are uncommon, especially those that show the outcomes need not be bleak, says the eminent clinician of adolescent mental health, Professor Garry Walter. In Australia each year around 100 teenagers aged 15 to 19 – mainly male – suicide, many of whom are depressed."
In the Wentworth Courier this week, talking about my book 'mum i wish i was dead', as well as the main motivation behind writing it; to give hope to families and sufferers.
If a person's suffering can be alleviated, if one life can be saved by sharing this story, then this has been a success.
This is a personally signed copy.