Dana lost her mother to suicide at 16 and blamed herself. At 21, anxiety and guilt had taken over her life.
“I had extreme anxiety, I had quite overwhelming symptoms of OCD, a lot of guilt and depression surrounding the death of my mum,” she said.
“I was pretty much stuck; I would have these massive anxiety attacks and freeze up, and it was really impacting my family life; my relationships and my work life.”
But Dana saw hope. And she reached out.
She enrolled to join the Depression and Anxiety Recovery Program (DARP) which runs each year at Greenbank and has a more than 90% success rate helping people free themselves from depression and anxiety.
“The program was really great to sort of help me work through those feelings of guilt and kind of understand where these feelings of anxiety were coming from, and how to recognise those feelings and deal with them in a way that could be productive and helpful to me,” she said.
After completing the eight-week program last year, Dana felt herself improve so much, she is now set to join the team as a youth mentor to help others struggling with similar situations.
“I’ve significantly improved; I don’t have symptoms of depression anymore,” she said.
“A lot of my feelings around my mum’s death like the guilt and the self-blame have resolved.
“Obviously, I will always miss her and if I look back on her death it’s always going to be a sad time and bad memory for me, but I don’t have those feelings of blame and guilt surrounding it anymore.
“I’m not letting things get on top of me anymore; I’m staying on top of life and not getting pulled down all the time.
“I think youth suicide and youth depression is a real problem because a lot of teenagers and young adults kind of struggle with that feeling of ‘will anyone understand me?’ Or they are afraid of the judgement. I think that’s why they were keen to take me on as a youth leader.”
According to figures released by the Queensland Government, depression is the most common mental health problem for young people and one in four young people aged 16–24 experience and live with depression each year.
In Australia, one in 10 young adults (18–25 year olds) experience anxiety in any 12-month period.
Pharmacist and DARP Associate Director John Ward says mental health issues like depression can sneak up on people.
“Depression is one of those insidious things it comes on, so you hardly even realise it’s happening.
“…We’ve had quite a few people who have come along as support or just to learn, not even knowing they were depressed until they saw the symptoms.
“We’ve had lots of people who’ve been on the verge of suicide, who’ve done the programme and they’re saying, I haven’t felt this good for years.”
The program, developed by Dr Neil Nedley in the USA covers topics such as; cognitive behavioural therapy, nutrition, sleep and social relationships.
The next Greenbank DARP program will begin with a free information evening on Tuesday July 12, at the Park Ridge Community Centre and Men’s Shed. Phone Kim 0467 299 575.
