Opus Magazine 62 (2) - Mental Health and Coping

FREE STUDENT MAGAZINE Journalism Art Fiction Reviews Competitions Entertainment

Volume 62 / Issue 2 True student-led media Mental health and coping

Opus Magazine

Volume 62 / Issue 2 Š 2016 Newcastle University Students' Association (NUSA) NUSA Building, University of Newcastle Opinions expressed are those of student contributors and not necessarily those of NUSA. NUSA acknowledges the Pambalong clan of the Awabakal people, upon whose land Opus is published. NUSA pays respect to their elders past, present and future, and stands alongside them in their struggle for self-determination, land rights and social justice. This land was never ceded - it is and always will be Aboriginal land.

Editor: Barrie Shannon | media@nusa.org.au Contributors: Barrie Shannon, Claudia D’Amore, Ashlea Brumby, Hannah-Louise Stretton, Reilly Carroll, Tiarne Shutt, Liam Scully, Jaela Skehan, Emma Edwards, Jacqui Soerensen, Ruby Porter, Lachlan Tiffen.

Special thanks: NUSA Media Collective, Kellie Cathcart, Jacqueline Olley.

Cover art: Barrie Shannon Design: Barrie Shannon, Caitlin Bray http://www.opus.org.au/ Opus Magazine

@OpusMagazine

EDITORIAL

5

HOW

TO

JUGGLE

DEPRESSION, ANXIETY AND YOUR PHD 8 HOW DO YOU DE-STRESS? 12 FUN

14 A MIRROR, DARKLY 16 ACCESSING MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT 19 PRIDE WEEK 20 SIGNS WITH MYSTIC MEL 22 CASES 396051/2 24 INTERVIEW WITH SAFIA 26 THE

SILVER

LINING

OF

CRUSHED DREAMS 30 ON THIS DAY 32 BOY, INTERRUPTED 34 PANIC 38 RUOK: THE MENTAL HEALTH DAY HATED BY THE MENTALLY ILL

40 WELCOME

TO THE WORLD OF ONLINE MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT 42 KEEPING WELL, MENTALLY 44 THE ART OF SELF

LOVE 46 HOW TO LOOK AFTER YOUR MENTAL HEALTH 48 DRUGS, ALCOHOL AND

YOUR

MENTAL

HEALTH

50

Newcastle University Students’ Association (NUSA) is your student union, run by and for students. This means that our accountability is to our student members—we work for you.

NUSA provides: 

Free breakfast, tea, coffee and juice all day, every day



Free Food Fridays—thanks OzHarvest!



Free barbecues and pancake breakfasts



Free safe sex supplies, sunscreen and mosquito repellent



Free table tennis and basketball



Free activities and events



Cheap First Aid, RSA and RCG courses



$20 veggie boxes—packed with heaps of fresh produce



Safe spaces for women and GLBTI identifying students



Support for student clubs and societies



Advocacy on behalf of students

Come and visit us in the NUSA Building, next to Bar on the Hill on the Hunter side of campus!

Newcastle University Students Association - NUSA

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editorial.

The period between the ‘re-launch’ of Opus and this issue has been hectic. I would gladly take single-handedly curating a comeback issue of a defunct flagship magazine over trying to engage university students in producing the follow-up. University students do not have spare fucks to give. I hate us.

Kidding. Sort of. We have received some really great submissions and we’ve have had a lot of talented people get involved in the NUSA Media Collective since relaunching. Our website has gone live, and has had a great response. It has even been listed as a finalist in the 2016 NEWi Awards!

For perspective, we have published one “proper” issue after three years, and we are already significantly outperforming Yak Media’s engagement on Facebook.

A lot of our online engagement has been from our support for the campaign to have the University move away from its $88m facilities management contract with Broadspectrum.

This company runs the immigration detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, and now provides services such as cleaning and maintenance. There is a real chance that they will take over our security services, too.

There are people on our campus who work for the same company whose contractors are the subject of hundreds, if not thousands of allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse of asylum seekers on Nauru.

Children are overrepresented in these reports.

Your money is being paid to this company. We are paying for the imprisonment and abuse of refugees. This is wrong.

In my position as Media Officer, and as the editor of Opus, I call on the University to walk away from Broadspectrum. We do not want our money given to a company who have failed to maintain the basic human rights of so many vulnerable people. The money

you are saving by outsourcing responsibility for our safety is not worth the human cost.

Responsibility for our safety should not be outsourced at all.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my disappointment in University for its failure to make any SSAF money available for Pride Week.

Throughout the entire year, NUSA, NUPSA and the health promotion staff in Student Central have been operating on the understanding that the University would give student associations access to a $50k SSAF funding pool to run health and welfare events. It was agreed that Pride Week and several other projects would be able to be funded from this pool.

With just over a month until Pride Week, the University reneged on this agreement, taking that SSAF pool away. NUSA has been left scrambling for funding in order to put on events we have spent all year planning.

There’s a kind of irony in the University’s intention host a speaking engagement with Dr Kerryn Phelps, a prominent LGBTI advocate.

If the University wants to continue spruiking its inclusive and equitable credentials, it needs to follow it up with action.

On a (sort of) lighter note, welcome to our Mental Health special issue. I’m proud to be showcasing students’ candid stories of love, loss, struggle and triumph in how they deal with their mental illness. I hope reading these stories helps you too.

I’d also like to briefly thank SAFIA for letting us interview them - and for speaking about mental health with us too.

As we head toward the end of the year, please visit our website and keep the submissions coming - we’re always hungry for content.

Barrie Shannon Media Officer

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Dr Kylie Bailey, Senior Clinical Psychologist School of Medicine & Public Health, Faculty of Health & Medicine, University of Newcastle Phone: (02) 4042 0541, Fax: (02) 4042 0044 kylie.bailey@newcastle.edu.au

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Complaints about this research This project has been approved by the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee, Approval No. H-20150360. Should you have concerns about your rights as a participant in this research, or you have a complaint about the manner in which the research is conducted, it may be given to the researcher, or, if an independent person is preferred, to the Human Research Ethics Officer, Research Office, The Chancellery, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia, telephone (02) 49216333, email HumanEthics@newcastle.edu.au.

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CONTENT WARNING

This issue of Opus explores student experiences of mental illness, depression, anxiety and suicidality in a candid manner that may cause discomfort for some readers. If you feel that you are triggered by the content in this issue, we strongly advise you to seek support. The University provides a free counselling service that you can access at http://www.uonblogs. newcastle.edu.au/counselling.

For peer support in coping with your mental illness, and for mental illness and disability advocacy, you can contact the NUSA Equity Collective at equity@nusa.org.au.

Alternatively, you may wish to contact one of these external support services: Beyondblue (1300 22 4636) Lifeline (13 11 14) Qlife (for GLBTIQ-specific support) (www.qlife.org.au) If you feel that you or a mate may be in danger of self-harm, please call Lifeline for guidance.

In an emergency, we urge you to call triple zero (000).

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How to juggle depression, anxiety

and your phd

Feature Article

S

Barrie Shannon

ometimes I’m pretty torn about doing my PhD.

was because of my crooked teeth and the fact I was

It’s very high pressure, and you need to be

(and still am) useless at sport, but once kids started

constantly motivated. You’re essentially trying

realising that there were differences between how boys

to justify yourself as being deserving of the highest

and girls were meant to behave, it quickly became my

educational attainment in the modern world. You’re

femininity.

very likely going to be have to teach and do a lot of public speaking along the way. You can probably

High school was much worse - the sadness and anger

appreciate that this isn’t really an ideal situation for

I felt about my bullying very quickly turned around

someone struggling with depression and anxiety.

and became a visceral self-hatred that followed me everywhere I went and affected everything I did. But

But on the other hand, doing my PhD allows me a level

it was frankly impressive how I managed to balance

of control over my work that can satisfy my obsessive

this self-hatred with a hostile attitude to my peers that

tendencies. I can choose to not show up to work if I

reeked of narcissism and classism.

want to, and I can take time off and write in bed if I’m just not feeling it on any given day. Moreover, I’m very lucky to have the opportunity to dedicate my time and effort to a topic that I love - and I get paid to do it.

It’s an interesting balancing act.

Some background about me: I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety as long as I can remember.

Although I really hate putting it this way, it kind of comes with the territory when you’re gay. Having said that, depression runs in my family, and I can’t really pinpoint one particular experience from my childhood or adolescence that ‘started’ it. It’s been there for a long time, and I suspect it’s going to be one of those

“

To put it bluntly, I didn’t plan on surviving to the end of year 12

”

I surrounded myself with the kind of people who actively nurtured and encouraged my self-destructive tendencies so that they would not have to be left alone with their own mediocrity. This was disastrous for my academics, but I didn’t care. To put it bluntly, I didn’t plan on surviving to the end of year 12.

As the end of school drew closer, I realised that I would never have to see any of these people ever again. This

lifelong things that just stick.

is when I started to worry about my chances of getting

I was bullied a lot as a kid. When I was very young, it

and I had started reading The Bell Jar.

8

into university. I had taken psychology in senior school

I was clearly very deep, and very clever. I wanted to

became a thorn in the side of the University of South

become a psychologist so that I could fix myself, and

Australia, advocating for better facilities and services

then every other sad gay kid out there.

for GLBTI students. It was the view of the student union that the University was attempting to replicate all

My pitiful TER (the South Australian ATAR equivalent)

of our services in order to justify redirecting our funding,

meant that without the handicap points I got from

ultimately aiming to shut us down entirely. So, this was

learning a language and being in a feeder school

an uphill fight. It’s a fight I couldn’t win, as I was about

for low-SES students, I would never have been able

to graduate and couldn’t stick around long enough to

to get into my chosen course - a double degree of

see my vision of a more inclusive and nurturing campus

psychological science and social science. While that

come about. I hope that future students can pick up

sounds sort of impressive, it is more or less just a

where I left off.

bastardisation of social work and psychology without enough focus to qualify in either field.

I decided to take the enormous step of moving interstate. I enjoyed sociology, and I decided that I

When I realised both this, and the fact that I couldn’t

would move to Newcastle to live with my boyfriend,

‘fix’ my own mental health problems with a textbook

and to undertake honours in social science. Two birds,

and a high distinction in Psych 1A, I relapsed. The best

one stone. I had been encouraged by a few academics

that I could hope for out of this degree was a job as a

at UniSA to pursue queer liberation and sex education,

counsellor or a low-level caseworker, and the thought

which were two topics I had impressed them with in

of having to talk to strangers every day and be heavily

my final year.

relied upon to remedy complex problems filled me with a deep, existential anxiety. This followed me through

Skip forward two years.

my ‘middle years’ and caused me to incur a few fails on my transcript.

I had somehow managed to complete my honours year with a mark of 89%, allowing me to easily attract

During my degree I had been intrigued by sociology

an offer for a PhD in sociology and anthropology.

and politics, and this time around, I didn’t have that

However, my middling undergraduate GPA, which was

no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel sense of doom that

impacted by those pesky fails, meant that I was not

had affected me through my adolescence. Though

offered a scholarship. I came to another fork in the

there were times where I felt tempted to give up, I

road. I had to compromise: I enrolled part-time in my

persevered. There were always new paths to choose.

PhD while living on the dole. Yep, fun times.

I had also met a boy.

During the first few months of my PhD, I felt another relapse coming on. I felt like I was working too hard for

Thus began my meteoric rise to the top. Not really, but

no guarantee of success whatsoever. I had also suffered

life did get a lot better from here. I realised that my

poor treatment by the job providers I was forced to see.

passion for social justice and for queer liberation could

One particularly useless employee at MAX Empoyment

be channeled into more than being a counsellor, or a

tried to enrol me in a work for the dole position in a

psychologist, or anybody that has to deal directly with

factory in Muswellbrook so that he could quickly get

vulnerable people. Though I resented it, I acknowledged

me off the books. This was despite my having neither a

that my social anxiety meant that I would have to pursue

car nor the ability or interest required for manual labour.

something with significantly less social pressure. This is an important point, and I’ll come back to it later.

This was the last time I can remember seriously contemplating harming myself.

I ended up getting involved in student politics, and I

9

I showed up to an assessment interview at Centrelink

to teach a first year class which had just opened up

for special consideration very near tears. I hadn’t slept

due to demand.

in days. It was a humiliating experience. For that hour, I felt the butt of every joke about dole bludgers, welfare

Don’t get me wrong - I was thankful for her advocacy

leeches and crazy people. The interview ultimately

on my behalf and retrospectively it was one of the

went fine. I stepped out of the building with a plan.

greatest things I have achieved so far - but after getting off of the phone with the course co-ordinator to confirm

I saw my GP and made the decision to go back on

my ‘promotion’ to casual academic, I got into bed and

psychiatric medication. I had been on medication

hyperventilated for a good hour.

previously, but I had stopped in my last year at UniSA because I was convinced that I was ‘cured’. My GP wrote me a prescription for Cymbalta and gave me a referral to see a psychologist.

My moods gradually stabilised, and with the support of my boyfriend, my friends, my supervisors, my therapist and my GP, I was able to start getting some solid work done. By the end of my first part-time year of my PhD, I had managed to publish a journal article, have a second article accepted, and give a well-received presentation at the peak Australian sociology conference.

I couldn’t help but burst into tears when I got the phone call telling me that my hard work had scored me a PhD

“

I couldn’t help but burst into tears when I got the phone call telling me that my hard work had scored me a PhD scholarship...

”

This would involve public speaking, which makes me anxious because I am self-conscious about my articulation and occasional stutter. It would involve the pressure to carry a group of kids through their first formal experience of sociology. It was make or break.

It was life or death.

scholarship to begin in 2016. Goal reached. Bam.

Well, it sure felt like it.

I couldn’t have achieved any of this if I hadn’t taken the

For my first class, I was shaking, stumbling and

risks I did, and if I hadn’t pushed myself to the brink.

Adelaide me couldn’t have done this. Two years ago me couldn’t have done this.

Now I’m 24, I’ve gone through the confirmation process for my PhD and I’m more or less stable. But it’s not quite as simple as that. My supervisor punted me right into the deep end when she volunteered me

10

burning red. I went through the course outline clumsily, and discussed the requirements of each assignment.

I did the done-to-death housekeeping talk: respect each other’s boundaries and opinions, do not disclose information about anybody else outside of this tutorial.

Then I paused. Fuck it.

I told the class that this was my first time teaching and

Without regular sessions with a psychologist in

that I suffered from severe anxiety. I explained what I do

combination with Cymbalta and Propranolol, I would

as a PhD student, and why I love sociology. I reassured

not have been able to achieve what I have. But it is

the class that I’m willing and able to help, and to bear

worth noting the unpleasant withdrawal effects that

with me while I find my footing.

come with forgetting to take it, or trying to ‘quit’ them cold turkey. These can fuck with you. Basically what I’m

Most of the class smiled, and I felt the warmth. “That’s

saying is go and see your doctor, and take patience,

okay,” one guy said to me. “You’re doing fine,” said

commitment and an open mind.

another. I finally exhaled. Okay. Do your job.

Your GP can prescribe medication and can set you There are a few things that I’ve managed to pick up

up with a ‘mental health plan’ which entitles you to

while I’ve been studying with mental illness that have

a certain number of free psychologist sessions. This

really helped. I figure that I may as well share them,

is done through Medicare, although I believe health

because I would have killed to have skipped the figuring

insurance should cover this for International students.

out time and get straight to the remedy.

Thirdly, it’s important to have an escape and to make Firstly, acknowledge and accept that your anxiety and

time for it. Schedule it into your calendar if you have to.

your depression will never be cured and will never just

Whether you like gaming, reading, drawing, exercising,

go away. I know that sounds harsh, but if you are like

shoppng, sleeping, tantric masturbation or meditating,

me and are a chronic sufferer, it’s time to think about

make time to do something that makes you feel good.

management rather than a fix.

Finally, talk your problems out. Don’t be afraid to The rich tapestry of your lived experience, personality,

‘confess’ that you’re struggling. Seek help and rely on

sense of humour, relationships, quirks and kinks have

your friends, your supervisor, your family and peers.

all been influenced by your anxiety and depression in

Don’t leave it to fester until you’re in crisis mode. But

some way. Some are unquestionably bad ways, but

however bad it gets, there is always a path for it to get

others make you who you are. And you’re great.

better. You just might need help finding your way.

Secondly, the bad effects of your illness can be

Barrie is NUSA’s Media Officer,

managed. It’s not weak, nor does it make you a shill

NUPSA’s GLBTI Representative

to ‘big pharma’, to rely on therapy or medication.

and a PhD Candidate in Sociology

Antidepressants

and

beta

blockers

are

not

and Anthropology.

manufactured by the Illuminati, are not poison, and will not kill you. It’s not weak to seek help.

@BarrieShannon_

11

Playing with dogs.

Taking a bath.

Drinking tea.

How do you destress?* I bake! I start with a basic recipe...and normally abandon it by the time I'm a couple of ingredients in.

I fight tories and try to make Bill Shorten prime minister.

To de-stress I sit myself down with a cup of tea or often something a little stronger to watch something on Netflix, to which I’m then reminded my life is not near as stressful as some of my favourite on-screen characters.

Wanking lmao

Looking up pictures of Pepe the frog in scenarios that I can personally relate to.

Sex and chocolate. but not at the same time, because I have expensive sheets.

Sleep is good, but I find doing something I enjoy.

For me, that’s working on short films, but for others i might be time with friends, going for a walk or run or even hiting the gym.

Masturbation.

MEMES

Healthy: yoga, mass amounts of sushi, and a mindfulness activity CD a nurse gave me.

Unhealthy: cigarettes, vodka, and the occasional joint.

I turn on something trashy.

Like the lifetime or the cooking channel, hop into bed and zone out. Watching people renovate or cook seems to be very relaxing for me.

I usually de-stress by watching a movie, catching up on a missed television show, listening to music, socialising with friends, and the like.

*real student responses.

fun * Across

Down

2. Take back 4. Surname of last Knights Dally M Medalist 7. Location of Las Fallas festival 9. NBN harbinger of bedtime 10. Royal dog 11. Powerful 2011 cyclone 12. Second Gorillaz album 14. State electorate for Callaghan 15. National park in NT 16. Fancy term for goats’ cheese 19. Red 20. Cucumber and yoghurt dip

1. AFL’s cats 3. Jumper 5. Landmark in SA, The Big -------- Horse 6. The P in NUPSA 8. North Korean ideology 13. Prime Minister in 1955 15. Whale food 17. Capital of Belarus 18. Currency of Vietnam

su.do.ku

Puzzle 1 (Medium, difficulty rating 0.54)

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6

7

6

9 1

2

3 7

3

6

9

6

7

4

1

5

3 8 * Fun may or may not actually be had. Participate in these activities at your own peril.

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Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Tue Aug 2 02:23:33 2016 GMT. Enjoy!

9 7

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CELEBRITY EYES: 1. Judge Judy 2. Dr. Phil 3. Maury Povich 4. Ellen Degeneres 5. Joy Behar 6. Justine Schofield.

WHO’S THAT POKEMON: 1. Chansey 2. Kabutops 3. Kakuna 4. Machoke 5. Rhyhorn 6. Dragonair 7. Geodude 8. Jigglypuff from above 9. Farfetch’d 10. Dewgong 11. Marowak 12. Ditto.

Who’s that Pokémon? we have mutilated the following daytime tv hosts. identify them by their eyes.

celebrity eyes.

A Mirror, Darkly.

Essay

Reilly Carroll “I don’t understand how you could be so stupid.”

“That’s because you think it has something to do with smart and stupid… you think it’s a lack of willpower? That’s like thinking somebody with anorexia nervosa has an overdeveloped sense

Y

of vanity.”

lips. “Not this body. Just for today. Please.”

At a party not long ago, I made a joke about how I’d take better care of myself, lose weight and look after my skin, but “it’d just be underfeeding and smearing moisturiser on a rotting corpse which hasn’t had the decency to die yet.”

ou wake up. Your room is how you left it— maybe you’ve got books piled up on the

It was a joke. I’m pretty sure it was a joke. I found it

bedside table or clothes piled up on the floor.

hilariously funny, at least, and so did at least one other

Maybe the person you love is beside you, maybe

party-goer.

you’ve got a cat curled up on your crotch.

“You need to talk to somebody,” said another.

Everything is just how it should be. Tidy, messy,

“Someone who can actually help you.”

whatever. It’s your room. It’s where you should be.

I left unspoken the response which immediately came So you sit up. You get out of bed. Go to the bathroom.

to my lips: no one can help me with this. Why? Because

There’s a mirror in your bathroom and you catch a

body dysmorphia is such an inalienable part of my self-

glimpse of someone. You’re the only person in the

conception. It colours so deeply every way I interact

room but the person in the mirror isn’t you.

with other people and the world around me and myself, that I can’t actually conceive of what help looks like

Rather: you hope, desperately, that the person looking

or—more horrifying—what I would be without it.

back at you—peering at you with eyes that are too small or too big or just a bit off-kilter, wearing skin

The reality is that my thinking has been disordered

you know is too scarred or too red or too flaky—isn’t

for so long that the thought of not thinking that way

you. You don’t believe in God, or maybe you do, but

terrifies me.

either way you pray.

Something has changed lately, though: I’ve stopped “Not this body,” you pray, speaking through an alien’s

16

hoping.

Anxiety Treatment Australia explains body dysmorphic

In 2013, I started walking for three hours every night.

disorder as “a condition where the sufferer is

I’d load my phone up with audiobooks and wander

preoccupied with an imagined defect, or a slight

around Newcastle. From New Lambton to Nobbys,

imperfection, in their appearance. Although many

across to Bar Beach, back through Broadmeadow.

people are concerned about some aspect of their

I’d walk to Charlestown via Adamstown and Kotara,

appearance, body dysmorphic disorder sufferers

come back past Blackbutt. I lost twenty kilos, through

concern about their appearance is considered

exercise and healthy eating.

excessive and their appearance worries significantly negatively impact upon their ability to work, socialise

Each time, I slipped. I relapsed—started eating chips

or carry out activities of daily living.”

again. Started drinking. Boy, can I drink. I gave up on myself because, no matter how thin I get, I am still…

Which is, you know, a better place to start than with

me. All the selfies I take still look like crap. My hair is

the DSM, because a set of diagnostic criteria doesn’t

still too thin. My left eye is still so wock you could cook

tell you how it feels to be so terrified at the sight of

a stir fry on it. I’m still so old. And so on.

yourself in a car window that your whole week is ruined or how demoralising even an offhand comment from a

Because that’s what dysmorphia does to you. It

stranger, let alone a loved one, can be.

amplifies the minor imperfections, the things no one else notices, and makes them enormous, inescapable,

I can’t speak for everyone who suffers from this illness,

fucking world-devouring.

which current consensus identifies as a bastard cousin of obsessive compulsive disorder.

It isn’t about vanity.

I can speak for me. So I’m going to.

You might think it is, and fair enough—but you’re wrong. I’ve been dysmorphic since I was six years In a practical sense it manifests in a number of ways:

old. I don’t think six year olds are capable of vanity.

social anxiety; self-hatred; a tendency to be overly

Not this sort of vanity, anyway. I was six, in year two,

critical of my own appearance and to take things way

and I had joined Nobbys Surf Live Saving Club. You

too personally; a pathological and at times crippling

know, Nippers. I love the beach and I always have. I

fear of cameras and photographs.

love the surf and the sand and the sun. I love the smell of sunscreen, even.

Outwardly, I know I’m capable of being charming and funny and that I seem like a fairly gregarious and

But that little kid, shivering on the sand in Speedo and

outgoing person. Inwardly, I’m screaming.

cap? All he could think, all I can think still, was how ugly I looked. How wrong it was: me, chubby, white. All I

Lately I’ve been screaming out loud, too.

wanted to do was leave. Run. I started crying instead.

My parents made me go to Nippers for three years and

In 2008, when I was sixteen, I started going the gym. I

I hated every second of it. They thought I was being

also stopped eating. I lost a lot of weight, but because I

lazy when I pleaded with them not to make me go.

was doing that first thing and because I’d always been

Which is fair enough, too. They were just… so wrong.

fat no one noticed the second thing. I could fit into skinny jeans and my skin cleared up a bit and the only

I haven’t been swimming at the beach in many years.

thing anyone would talk about when they saw me was

Every year I promise myself I will.

just how thin I was getting.

17

So it’s been part of me since forever. I can’t fix it. I’m

I’m living a life that is, by most measures, pretty great—

not at all confident anyone else can.

and this makes the fact that my body dysmorphia has only gotten worse in recent years even more insulting.

What is there to do?

I’ve been going to therapy—off and on, I freely admit— and I’ve tried cocktails of antidepressants and anti-

I read about other dysmorphics who think they can

anxiety meds. None of it has worked for long.

save themselves with surgery. I’m almost jealous of them. Imagine: how good must it feel to believe, almost

So I’ve stopped hoping. I’ve stopped hoping that I’ll

certainly incorrectly, that a surgery can fix you? Make it

ever be beautiful—even the people who love me most

all better? How nice must it be to have that hope?

tell me that I won’t be. I’ve stopped hoping that I’ll get better—because what does better look like? How do

Lucky bastards.

you get there? And how do you stay there once you find it?

Mental illness is a hard thing to explain to anyone who’s

I’ll stay alive. But I’m still not entirely sure I want to.

never had to deal with it and even harder to explain to someone who’s come out the other side. It’s hard to explain to people how the sight of a camera in

The quote at the beginning is from The West Wing. Leo

someone’s hand makes my bones freeze inside my

McGarry, White House Chief of Staff, is an alcoholic.

skin, or how much I hate myself after I eat bread. It’s

He recalls a relapse, at a most inopportune time, and

hardest of all to explain to people who love you how

his confidante can’t believe he’d be so stupid. It’s not

much you hate yourself.

about being stupid, he insists. Of course it isn’t—that’s not how addiction functions.

It’s really hard to tell them how much you want to die.

Being clinically depressed isn’t about an absence of happiness—it’s a chemical imbalance in the brain. Ditto One of my psychologists—I’ve had a few—told me

anorexia nervosa, which has nothing to do with vanity

once that body dysmorphic disorder is different from

and everything to do with a miswired and misfiring

other mental illnesses, including others in the obsessive

brain, as Leo pointed out.

compulsive “family”, because your trauma isn’t singular or separate and your triggers can’t really be avoided.

This knowledge isn’t enough to rewire your brain or to

Your trauma is ongoing and you literally carry it around

prevent the misfires. It’s enough for you to see the bus

with you. Your triggers are reflective surfaces and the

coming but not enough for you to get out of the way.

way people look at you.

Everyone has a different path to take when it comes All of which isn’t to say that my life is an unending

to getting and staying healthy, mentally and physically

parade of doom and gloom.

and in every other way. I haven’t found my path yet.

Perhaps I’ll stumble onto it one day.

It isn’t. I’m involved in politics and activism. I do work I really love. I have a dog. I have a group of friends I

In the meantime, all I can say is: I have body dysmorphia.

like and who seem to like me back. In April, I fulfilled a

I struggle with it every day. I always have. I probably

lifelong dream when I went to Italy. I have an apartment

always will.

I share with my boyfriend of six years, whom I love with every fibre of my being.

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Reilly is a final-year Law student.

Accessing mental health support

If you feel that you are struggling to cope with issues related to your mental health, there is support available - and it can be surprisingly simple and affordable. We’ve done some digging, and you can find our tips and tricks to navingating the system below.

1. Make sure you have your own Medicare card. If you’re still listed on your parent or caregiver’s Medicare card, it’s a good idea to get your own. It’s totally free - and it means that you can maintain your privacy. You can find the form you’ll need to fill out by Googling ‘Medicare card’.

2. If you are on a student payment or a low income, apply for a Low Income Healthcare Card from Centrelink. This will entitle you to bulk-billing at almost any GP you visit, as well as giving you heavily discounted access to medicines.

3. Do some research and find a good GP in your area. Reaching out for support takes guts, and you want to be sure that when you open up to somebody, that they’re going to be supportive. You can usually find a bit out about a GP practice on the internet, including individual doctors’ areas of expertise.

4. Be honest and open with your GP, and ask about a Mental Health Plan. In order to make an informed decision, your GP needs to know about your current situation. Details about drug and alcohol use are important, especially if your GP recommends medication.

A Mental Health Plan entitles you to to have up to 10 free sessions with a psychologist. You may be eligible for referrals for other services for comorbid issues such as pain or nutrition.

5. Ask your GP about any medications, the side effects and the potential benefits.

Taking medication can be a very good way to keep mood swings under control. However, many antidepressant medications (SSRIs and SNRIs) have side effects which can include weight gain, loss of libido, and other sexual issues. Keep in mind that antidepressants take time to work, and your symptoms may get worse before they get better. Weigh up your options, and decide what to do based on your own needs.

6. Make sure the University understands your mental health concerns. Your tutors and lecturers should be supportive and accommodating for your issues. If they aren’t, or if you need further study-related support, you can contact the Counselling Service, the Disability Support team, or the Office of Student Advocacy. If you prefer somebody outside the University to advocate for you, the Education and Equity Conveners at NUSA are happy to help.

7. If you’re an International Student, check your entitlements under your insurance.

Your insurance should cover GP visits and allied health referrals. This means that you are likely able to get a Mental Health Plan and subsidised medication, but it is a good idea to check. International Postgraduate students face many unique challenges during their candidature which can take a toll on their mental health. For help, advice and advocacy while you’re doing your Masters or PhD, you can contact NUPSA or UoN Global.

8. Don’t suffer alone. If you’re struggling, get in touch with the University counsellors, or the NUSA Equity Collective - a group of students providing advocacy and peer support for others with disability or mental illness.

If you have been contemplating self-harm, please reach out to a support service such as Lifeline (13 11 14). If you feel that you are in danger, or in an emergency, call triple zero (000).

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pride week OCTOBER 10 - 14 Autonomous (GLBTIQ-identifying only)

18+

All Ages

Monday OPENING CEREMONY - 12:00 PM at Auchmuty Courtyard

Join NUSA, NUPSA and other community members for an opening ceremony in the Auchmuty Courtyard. A barbecue picnic lunch will be held, and you will be able to hear from several speakers as they open Pride Week for the GLBTIQ community at UoN.

TUESDAY ASS CLASS - 5:30 PM at NUSA Building

The NUSA Queer Collective in collaboration with ACON are hosting a workshop providing you with all the information you will ever need to know about safe, fun and respectful sex.

As the name suggests, this workshop is specifically targeted toward gay men and men who have sex with men (MSM).

WEDNESDAy

MOVIE NIGHT - 6:00 PM at NUSA Building

Join the NUSA Queer Collective for a night in with free food and queer-themed movies. This informal event is a great opportunity to get to know your fellow Collective members and make new friends.

ALLY is a network of UoN students and staff who have an understanding of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (GLBTI) people and the issues they frequently face.

The ALLY network aims to raise the awareness of GLBTI issues across our campuses and promote a more welcoming, diverse and inclusive culture at UoN. www.newcastle.edu.au/ally

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THURSday PRIDE CARNIVAL DAY - 10:00 AM-3:00 PM at Oval 3

The Pride Carnival Day is the main feature of Pride Week. Held on the oval near the Commonwealth Bank and Wollotuka Institute, the Carnival has free food, rides, activities live music and other attractions to help you celebrate the University’s queer community.

UON QUEER RESEARCH EVENING - 6:00 PM at GT Bar Postgraduate students and UoN academics will showcase their queer-focussed research at an evening dinner hosted by Newcastle University Postgraduate Students’ Association (NUPSA). It will be held in the intimate GT Bar, a venue named for the eccentric and unashamedly queer UoN legend Godfrey Tanner.

FRIday PRIDE PARTY/PUB CRAWL - 5:00 PM at Hotel Delaney Join the NUSA Queer Collective for a night out, starting at the Hotel Delaney. Canapes will be provided at the first stop, and the group will head out together to a range of other venues afterwards.

Other things to look out for during Pride Week ‘You Are Here Now’ re-exhibition During Pride Week, you can visit the Cultural Collections area of the Auchmuty Library to have a look at pieces in the successful You Are Here Now exhibition. You Are Here Now was first exhibited in 2009 and looked at the lives of GLBTI staff and students, past and present, at the University of Newcastle.

#TankThePlebiscite Campaign This year, be on the lookout for Queer Collective representatives who will be running a campaign to let students know about the Government’s dangerous plebiscite. The plan will be costly and will not force MPs to support the result. Perhaps most importantly, the ‘no’ to equality campaign will hurt a lot of vulnerable young people.

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Signs

with Mystic Mel

Capricorn (Dec 2 - Jan 19) The stars are conspiring against you, Capricorn. I hear the faint whispers; ‘we’ve had just about enough of this Capricorn dogging the boys’, they say. I would be smart about this and stay indoors. Only go out to avoid dogging the boys.

Aquarius (Jan 20 - Feb 18) As you are a water sign, you’ll find that you thrive on rainy days. Next time there’s a thunderstorm, strip off and roll around in the wet grass like a dog. I promise it will bring you luck.

Pisces (Feb 19 - Mar 20) The fish smell isn’t going away, is it, dear Pisces? The only way to fix this is to wait for the next full moon and empty a can of Lynx Africa onto your genitalia. All will be fixed. All will be well. And you’ll smell like a bo$$.

Aries (Mar 21 - Apr 19) When Venus swaps with Saturn this month, you’re going to want to avoid any mind-altering substances. This goes for coffee, alcohol, cannabis, meth, the whole shebang. It’s entrylevel astrology that when The Cosmic Swappity-Doo (as we call it in the biz) happens, everything goes wack.

You’ll get one drink in and you’ll have a tramp stamp of that Tweet Justin Bieber’s dad made about his son’t leaked nudes. Have you seen it? It’s fucking gross. Don’t risk it.

Taurus (Apr 20 - May 20) Apparently Tauros is only available in America if you want to catch it on Pokemon Go. I’ve heard rumours you can hatch it from an egg, but I’m not really sure about that. Anyway, a wild animal will give you tetanus. Do not leave the house at night.

Gemini (May 21 - Jun 20) The promotion/relationship/lottery will come to you soon provided that you follow the strict instructions provided to you, through me, from Zerg, the green alien god I happen to pray to.

You must roll a 10 sided die, multiple that number by 100 and send that

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dollar amount to Mystic Mel, NUSA Building, University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308. All your wishes will come true.

Cancer (Jun 21 - Jul 22) A rare astrological event means that, for a brief period on Halloween, your actions will have no social consequences whatsoever. Plan wisely and take this opportunity to tell everybody you see to go screw themselves. You’ll be surprised how well it works out!

Leo (Jul 23 - Aug 22) There’s very little you can do to make this a bad month, dear, sweet, beautiful Leo. And everyone knows it. Everyone will be out to make it a horrible month for you out of jealousy.

Trust no bitch.

Virgo (Aug 23 - Sep 22) This moon-phase period should be unremarkable for you as long as you follow typical Bad Luck Rules. No ladders, cats, salt or pepper shakers or witchcraft. You got this.

Libra (Sep 23 - Oct 22) Your life is in grave danger. You will need to drink a concoction of lamb’s blood, a virgin’s semen and snail slime that has been blessed by a Mystic if you want to live. I can provide this service for $100; see my contact details above.

Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 21) Why are you still bothering with this love interest, beautiful Scorpio, you dumb bitch? Cut. Them. Off. Or the stars will see fit to punish you. There’s only so much a good Mystic can do.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21) This year is going to be a bad year. The patron saint of Sagittarii, Harambe the gorilla, has been clapped. While the stars conspire to elect a new saint, you’ve been warned. Sorry.

Hi Mel, My grandma sadly passed over to the other side a few weeks ago, and our family is struggling.

Since the premature death of her youngest son, she has held strong and taken the matriarichal role for both mine and my husband’s family. Could you shed some light on how she’s doing? Is she happy, and does she have any regrets?

Hey girl,

-Mourning, but sort of excitable

Your grandma’s aura is burning bright red. She’s in a considerable amount of cosmic pain. She... sorry, the astrological interference here is formidable. She will not shut up about how she wished she had ran away with that exotic- I can’t say that word.

I may be a Mystic, but I’m still white.

Your grandma’s actually kind of a cow. Frankly, you’re better off without her. Get over it.

Godspeed,

-Mel

Star QUOTE

“It’s a little known fact that Sk8er Boi was actually pointed commentary about the shortcomings of the No Child Left Behind Act. I think that was too real for some people.”

-Avril Lavigne (Libra, intellectual)

12.30pm till 2:00pm The Glasshouse

Week 4 (Tuesday 16th August) Week 6 (Tuesday 30th August) Week 8 (Tuesday 13th Sept) Mid Semester Break(Tuesday 27th Sept) Week 10 (Tuesday 11th October) Week 12 (Tuesday 25th October) THE GROUP IS FREE, AND PROVIDES A CONFIDENTIAL AND NON JUDGEMENTAL SPACE CONTACT UONANXIETYGROUP@GMAIL.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION

CASES 356091/2 Poetry

Tiarne Shutt 24

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I think it was about a year ago you guys teased us about releasing an album, and everyone has just been patiently losing their shit waiting for it.

What can we expect from the long awaited debut ‘Internal’?

Arts + Culture Claudia D’Amore The Canberra threesome SAFIA have treated punters to their electro indie-pop sound since winning the Groovin’ The Moo competition in 2012. Hooking in listeners with ‘Embracing Me’ and featuring on Peking Duk’s ‘Take Me Over’, the boys have proved their worth in the Australian music scene. Claudia caught up with SAFIA’s lead singer, Ben Woolner, to chat about their debut album ‘Internal’, wild antics in Las Vegas, and this issue’s topic, mental health.

I suppose it’s a display of everything we’ve done in the past. Within the singles, there’s a reoccurring trend or theme… it makes it a SAFIA song per se. I think the thing I love most about the album is its diversity from start to finish. Every song feels different in it’s own right.

I feel like we didn’t write the same song twice but at the same time listening from start to finish, for me anyway, it feels like a cohesive journey that starts one place and ends up in another. I’m super proud of it!

Have you begun rejoicing because the first album is out after all this time or did you want to hold onto it for a bit longer?

It feels good to have done it [laughing]! To have these songs done to first of all just show that we could do it. We did a single at a time. It’s all we had time to do because we were lucky enough to tour off the back of those singles.

26

It would be a tour, then write another single, tour and write another single, tour… that kind of thing. We had all these other songs that we were writing over a period of time too. But they were in very kind of early demo beta forms. So a lot of them have been lying around for a while. Finishing them off and getting them up to that level where they have life outside - because a lot of them are built from the computer - took a while. So it feels good to have it all done and now have a fresh perspective of things and start writing new music.

All of the tracks you deemed best would have made onto the record then. What’s your favourite track off the record?

It really does change from when I listen to the songs.

I could listen to one song and then that would be my favourite. They’re all so different. I like them all. At the moment, I’m really proud of ‘Over You’, our current single. We approached that differently. It’s a lot livelier.

Everything was made in the room that we created it in.

So, less samples based, more organic sounds. It came together really nice. It’s got this cool life and energy about it as well as simplicity, which I enjoy. But again I could listen to another song and then that would probably be my favourite for different reasons.

Earlier in the year SAFIA was touring around Australia performing at Groovin in the Moo. It’s also been announced SAFIA is to play THIS THAT in Newcastle. Do you enjoy that energy of playing to those big festival crowds?

It’s definitely fun! It’s hard not to enjoy that. At festivals everyone is having a good time. Everyone is up for going as hard as they can. It’s definitely a kick to play these big shows and point the mic out to the crowd and have them sing everything back. It’s one of our favourite things to do!

Did you run into any outrageous Donald Trump supporters at your shows?

[Laughing] No, I think we stuck to the heavily Democratic supporters, I’d say. We did play a bunch of shows in the mid-west in October in 2015, which was pretty interesting so I assume there would have been a lot of Trump supporters at those shows.

With ‘Over You’ in particular, I think people are going to attempt to match those really impressive high-pitched vocals you have in the chorus and will fail miserably at it. What was the concept behind ‘Over You’?

We wrote that in London in the studio, in a day. It’s interesting how the first incarnation of that song came about. We were playing in Adelaide a few months before and we were waiting around for sound check because something wasn’t working. We were getting kind of bored and I think Michael or me started singing this funny melody, an almost Russian melody, which is the guitar line in ‘Over You’. We started singing and doing some terrible beat-boxing to it and we thought it was funny and we decided to record it on our phones.

Then we found ourselves in a studio in London and we had a day to write a song so we needed a starting point. We went through our phones and found this beat and said, “Let’s see if we can write this song.” It went from there and it turned into this really cool oldschool hip-hop meets our version of electronic pop.

The very first incarnation of it was just super weird and funny. Way weirder than it is now.

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What would you say your craziest memory on tour has been?

Do you ever get nervous about performing on stage, and if so, how do you tackle those nerves?

This one is always hard to pinpoint. Our last American trip was pretty funny. The boys played a DJ set in LA and we ended up jumping in the studio with an Australian DJ who’s really popular over there, Tommy Crash. We got on really well with him. He told us he was playing a set in Vegas, and that we all had to go with him. It was three days of just… I don’t even know [laughing]. It was a crazy weird wacked-out DJ lifestyle.

I do get nervous, but they’re good nerves. I’m not nervous about performing as such; I actually tend to be more nervous about everything in the show working, technology-wise. That’s the thing with electronic music, you can have a different problem with every show and you have no idea which one it’s going to be. That’s probably my main nerves, as soon as we go out on stage and everything goes fine, it tends to go away. I like having a bit of nerves. They keep you focused.

It was a bit of a blur, was it?

Yes! It was definitely interesting. I wouldn’t go back to Vegas, let’s just say that. That was pretty crazy!

What can we expect from your biggest upcoming national tour to date?

We’re putting on the biggest we’ve ever put on. The production is crazy! I’m super proud of it! We’re going all out for these shows trying to make it the best experience as possible for anyone who comes, with also, a whole catalogue of new songs. It’s going to be fun playing for a bit longer as well. We usually only have a bunch of singles after touring, and there was only so long we could play for before people got bored of us only playing new music. It’s going to be fun to play all these songs and more, and to have a fully dynamic show that can go many different places over a period of time. We’re getting excited for that!

With this issue of Opus, we’re exploring subjects such as mental health, empowerment and coping.

Have you spoken out about mental health before?

Yeah, being in a band is an intense lifestyle and an intense relationship, so it takes its toll with stress.

Maintaining that relationship is super important as well as to be looking out for other people on the road. We’ve been pretty good because we’re childhood friends, so we understand each other super well. We know each other’s limits; we know when to leave someone alone and when to support them. That has helped a lot. I imagine it would be very hard in a band where you don’t know the members as well and there’s all these different dynamics going on.

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What methods do you generally use to stress less in life?

Personally, I tend not to stress too much. I’m definitely an optimist. Even if it’s a shit situation, I’ll always step back and look around. It’s always going to be better than a lot of other things. I think not taking yourself too seriously helps. When things are tough it’s always important to step back and have a look around for friends and family. I do that on the road too. I find it as a positive thing and it always helps.

Whatever you’re invested in at the time seems like the biggest thing in the world but there’s so much more going on around us. You can always step back, no matter where you are. People are in some dire situations in some other parts of the world, and I find for myself anyway that I’m able to step back and think how good I’ve really got it. I have friends and family around for support. It’s always important to look at the bigger picture. It’s not the end of the world if we release a song and no one likes it or if no one comes to a show.

The main thing is you’re doing what you love and you’re on that path.

SAFIA’s new album ‘Internal’ is out now. They will be in Newcastle for THIS THAT on November 11.

Exploring sexuality and gender diversity in contemporary Australian sex education: A transgender perspective.

I would like to hold focus groups to discuss experiences of sex education with undergraduate students. This research is being conducted as part of my PhD (Sociology & Anthropology) at The University of Newcastle.

Who can participate?

Students of the University of Newcastle aged 18-26 who attended high school in Australia and who are comfortable discussing sex education and issues related to sexuality in a small group setting. Participants are welcome regardless of sexuality or gender identity.

What would you be asked to do?

You will be invited to participate in a focus group held on campus. We will discuss experiences of sex education at school. Issues related to sex, sexuality and gender will arise in the discussion. Refreshments will be provided.

Interested?

For further information and to find out if this study is for you please contact Barrie Shannon via email at Barrie.Shannon@newcastle.edu.au or phone/text 0488 448 156. All participation is voluntary and questions regarding the research are welcome.

Student Researcher: Barrie Shannon Project Supervisor: Prof. Pamela Nilan Discipline of Sociology and Anthropology, School of Social Science, Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308.

This project has been approved by the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee, Approval No. H-2015-0393. Should you have concerns about your rights as a participant in this research, or you have a complaint about the manner in which the research is conducted, it may be given to the researcher, or, if an independent person is preferred, to the Human Research Ethics Officer, Research Office, The Chancellery, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia, telephone (02) 49216333, email HumanEthics@newcastle.edu.au.

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The silver lining of the crushed dreams Essay Jessie* The year I began uni was also the year my life almost came to an abrupt end. What I had anticipated to be my brilliant arrival on the academic scene ended up being a hellish journey through depression that nearly took my life. How did I stray so far from my well-intentioned goals? The short answer is being very depressed. The longer answer? I’ll try fill you in.

I have a mental illness. It’s intrusive, invasive and at times, crippling. I do my best to live alongside my diagnosis; it is an uneasy bedfellow, but a constant one whether I like it or not. Balance is key to my wellness, and it’s a dynamic process I have to consciously work at to remain afloat.

When I began my initial degree in 2014, I had not yet grasped balance as a gatekeeper to my sanity.

Instead, I reasoned that the opposite of mental illness was success. I saw the opportunity to re-write my personal narrative; to erase years of dysfunction by a series of glowing achievements. The desire to reinvent came from a desperate wish to distance myself from my own mental illness.

Overachievement seemed like the perfect antidote to my feelings of worthlessness and self-doubt. In practice though, it didn’t fly. I worked hard enough to get the accolades, but I was disappointed to find I only felt emptier. To appease this, I buckled down even more, becoming a caricature of neuroticism – sobbing over a “low” HD, running tens of kilometers a week, isolating away from a world that distracted me from my work.

Predictably, this took a significant toll on my mental health, and instead of acknowledging my eroding sanity I simply worked even harder. Reality became increasingly abstract and while I attended all my

30

*pseudonym used.

classes dutifully, I was a well-groomed husk.

It became a distinct possibility that I would have to be sectioned under the mental health act for my own safety. I panicked, but while I was looking up flights to evade “the authority” and prevent myself from being scheduled, I realized I was quite unwell, and agreed to go into hospital.

While I was languishing in a closed ward, I got an invitation to a ceremony to accept a prestigious scholarship I had received earlier in the year. I was permitted leave from the ward, and for an odd afternoon I was both the mental health patient sequestered away in a sterile cube and the bright up-and-coming scholarship recipient, shaking hands with academics and blinking in the flash of a camera.

In pictures I stand in my demure dress, arms so thin they look like they can hardly hold up the piece of paper signifying my success. In these pictures I see both the well and the unwell. I had never considered that I could be both mentally ill and successful. I thought the two were mutually exclusive.

Old habits die hard, and it was (and is) a gradual process to shift one’s focus from dogged overachievement to something more measured. I had to pry back my life from the extremes it had drifted to. I began by changing degrees to something I was passionate about, and dropped back to part time.

Addressing my physiological needs felt alien at first, but was vital in restoring my mental health. I began treating sleep as a medical necessity with positive results. I wound back my punishing runs to leisurely jogs, with less focus on achieving long distances.

Probably most importantly, I opened up to the idea of having friends. Up until now I’d seen them as little else but a distraction from study, or a threat to my confidentiality. With friends I softened, became less critical and more fun.

These factors keep me well. They don’t completely ward off relapse – I’m not sure in the face of my neurobiology, anything really does. But I am a more whole person, and certainly a much saner one. It was a hard road to learn what I know now about studying alongside mental illness, but perhaps I wouldn’t have listened any other way.

Through standing on the edge of the cliff, mentally and literally, I learnt about the perils of my own extremism.

Jessie is a Biomedical Science student and brain enthusiast. She likes quiet Saturdays in the lab and Rupaul’s Drag Race.

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On this day...

Opus Magazine Ten years ago 

I still struggle to come to terms with the fact that 2006 was ten whole years ago. I was just starting high school, and I was on the cusp of a very angsty adolescence.

Flicking through this issue, I’m bloody glad I’m not 30. Imagine having forged your identity and grown into adulthood at the peak of emo and punk. The fashion alone.

Tragic.

This issue, titled ‘Rich and Poor’, has a few articles examining the gap between, wait for it, rich and poor. One article discussed the rise of Christian Capitalism, namely Pentacostal megachurches and the links between said megachurches and certain coffee chains. Fun fact, one of these is right here on campus! Another article looks at rich pricks in Law School. Sorry to any law students reading this, but you’re horrible and everybody hates you.

Another interesting piece in this issue is titled ‘Finding Emo’, which looks at an assortment of tragic students and rates them according to how emo they are. Lots of Rise Against and Avenged Sevenfold fans, lots of lip piercings and one “I wear glasses. I fucking need them. I am not emo!” Also, lots of self-harm jokes. Happy Mental Health Month!

Pauline Hanson Just now 

I saw a little black boy using a mobile phone today. Truly inspirational.

Pauline Hanson Is Facebook halal?

Like Reply

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Get student content straight on your timeline - Search ‘Opus Magazine’.

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boy, interrupted.

(OR: How I stopped worrying and learned to love BPD) Feature Article Liam Scully I don’t want this to be an audition for the Oppression Olympics, but a mere summation of the facts: I have Borderline Personality Disorder (super rare, apparently) and have been hospitalised three times because of it (I’m in my hospital room writing this actually).

I’ve had to drop out of uni twice now, reduce my hours at work, all but cease my drinking, stop starving myself or buying $20 worth of junk food whenever my self-esteem plummets, and start a cycle of medication that occasionally leaves me with memory loss and mild cognitive impairment.

I’m only really open about my illness when I’m drunk.

I have innumerable scars where my BPD rearing its ugly head and externalised my pain. I’ve wasted six years of my life and I’m not quite sure that the end is in sight.

Anyone with a mental illness could tell you that there is a cost to being ill. Medications, appointments with psychologists and psychiatrists and GPs, outpatient therapy, inpatient programs, and so on. Not only are there the “positive” elements of spending, but the “negative”: bottles of vodka to quell the depressive voices, days you have to take off work because being a functional person is just not an option, courses

34

that you couldn’t finish added to your HECS-debt because your brain burned with the effort of doing something productive.

A friend of mine who suffers from bulimia estimates that she would spend $30 or more a day on food to binge and purge. When she applied to an outpatient treatment, the wait was unfeasibly long and allowed her illness to fester. I was rejected from Maitland Private Hospital, five minutes from home, for being too high risk and had to stay at Warners Bay Private Hospital (where I am now), 45 minutes from home.

When services are at capacity or not capable enough to treat you, what are your options but to try to treat yourself?

When I first started seeing my new psychologist outside of hospital and explained that I had received treatment in both public and private hospitals, she said, “Public hospitals are where they send you to keep you alive; private hospitals are where they send you to actually fix you.”

However, the prohibitive cost of private healthcare is a massive impediment to students with mental health issues, leaving them with little choice but to suffer or suffer with a group of other mentally ill people who aren’t receiving quality treatment.

According to NIB, a single student would pay at least $759.46 for basic private healthcare and $1845.18 for top range private healthcare for a year. Added to the cost of textbooks, groceries, rent, petrol, car registration, internet, utilities, phone bills, and at least 10 $4 drinks at Argyle on a Wednesday, it seems more and more inaccessible.

When services are at capacity or not capable enough to treat you, what are your options but to try to treat yourself?

“

”

Being in a private hospital was laissez-faire and laidback. My friends and I would skip group therapy and sit in the smoking section under the hospital, a plastic round table of manic-depressives and anorexics. We had our own rooms with a view of the bay, a TV, and an en suite, something like a Hilton Hotel.

The only difference was that I didn’t have room service, but kind nurses bringing me a cocktail of anti-psychotics with a few anti-anxieties for good measure. I was smoking a pack a day out of boredom, interrupted by the odd game of table tennis, hour long sessions with psychologists and psychiatrists, and meal time.

Public hospital, on the other head, was bleak. The nurses’ station was an impenetrable fortress of sorts, surrounded by unbreakable glass with a little slot to talk through, like at a bank or a train station. I had a spartan room for two nights, sharing it with a man in his late thirties, who would wheeze when he did push-ups while I was trying to sleep. Rude.

I was still in the slough of depressive ennui: I slept, but I didn’t eat or shower and only went to the toilet once a day and only when the coast was clear.

I begged my parents to get me out and thankfully they delieved. It was like something out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Or American Horror Story: Asylum for the less literary readers.

About two weeks ago I went to see my GP to get an updated Mental Health Care Plan, which you need

to claim Medicare payments when seeing a psych, and to get my prescriptions refilled. That set me back $104. Then I needed to get my bloods tested to make sure the medication I was on hadn’t enabled a chaotic degradation of, oh, my thyroid, or caused a potentially toxic rash.

For me, the short-term memory loss and the perpetual cognitive impairment is the worst, apart from said toxic rash. But what is the alternative?

A pale imitation of life, oscillating between thrilling highs and depressive lows. There is a literal cost to medication, but a physical cost too.

A certain medication I’m on – lamotrigine – is used primarily as an anti-epileptic, although its secondary usage is a potentially curative medication for bipolar and BPD. For whatever bureaucratic reason, when lamotrigine is used to treat mental illness it’s not subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, meaning I pay for the full cost so I don’t descend into chaotic madness, defined by mood instability, drug abuse, and pathetic crying into my wine (which does make it taste better, I will admit).

Back to private healthcare: it’s not that I think it’s intrinsically bad, in that you only get the best if you can pay for it, which disadvantages working-class people, students, the LGBTQI community, and so on. What I think is that all healthcare should be at the standard that I received in private hospital, even if taxes have to go up at the price of a few jets here and there. Maybe less tax concessions to big business.

I’m not an economist, okay? Perhaps it’s an unwieldy suggestion that would never happen, but a boy can dream, although I may as well be like poor, dirty Fantine from Les Miz singing ‘I Dreamed a Dream’.

As of May 2016, it was estimated that the Turnbull Government was eliminating $140 million of mental healthcare services, some 70% of early psychosis intervention programs like headspace. According to the Liberal Party’s website, $26 million will go to Primary Health Networks, a sly attempt at privatisation and removing agency from organisations like headspace in the name of business efficiency, not for the concerns of the mentally ill.

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For any efficacious progress to be made in addressing mental health issues in Australia, the gap between who can afford proper healthcare and who can’t needs to be closed.

On a tangent, Turnbull’s divisive show trial, aka the equal marriage rights plebiscite, will no doubt trigger a homophobic mud-slinging match that will affect the mental health of the LGBTQI community, a community already inundated with higher risks of mental illness, of drug abuse, of eating disorders, of homelessness, and of suicide.

Of course, none of this matters to Mr Multi-Millionaire and his cabal of right-wing, hate-filled political wannabes pontificating from the backbenches. Not only is Turnbull lighting a hate-filled fire, but he’s let George fucking Christensen, a turgid ball of myopia, steal the fire extinguishers. So much for Malcolm Turnbull’s renaissance of moderate governance.

Anyway, I digress. These are my borderline proposals for better mental health care in Australia: increase the numbers of therapy sessions subsidised by Medicare; divert all federal funding from chaplaincy programs in schools to improved mental health education in schools; re-evaluate the efficacy of programs like headspace (despite its advantages) and introduce a better model of care to mentally ill teens and young adults; fund mental health care institutions and services directly, instead of relegating funding

decisions to Primary Health Networks; establish incentives for nurses to specialise in mental health; and reject any privatisation of healthcare services.

In writing this I feel like I have exhumed my own corpse and read my own eulogy, but I’ve paid the funeral costs and I’m still here.

Oh, well – fuck it before it fucks you.

There is no stigma strong enough to stop me from telling it how it is. This is the reality of one in four young Australians. It may cost a lot for Malcolm Turnbull to listen to us, but I bet you we’ve paid more.

Liam Scully is a third year law/arts student, majoring in politics and English. He is an avid consumer of gin, French New Wave films, and post-structuralist philosophy. He is exactly as pretentious as he sounds.

Story image ‘Placebo’ © Laura Splan.

Are you a postgraduate student enrolled at the University of Newcastle? Then NUPSA is your student association!

How do I become a member?

By being enrolled, you are a member of NUPSA. Honours students are encouraged to attend our events and seminars and we can assist you at any time.

Is there a membership fee?

Nope - there is no charge!

What does NUPSA do?

• Supports postgraduate students with issues of concern • Represents postgraduate students on a number of University committees and working parties • Conducts seminars and workshops during semesters • Holds social activities each semester at most campuses • Distributes a regular newsletter

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Artwork by TJ Alford

PRIDE WEEK 2016 POSTGRADUATE QUEER RESEARCH EVENING Thursday, 13th of october, 6:00PM - 9:00PM godfrey tanner bar

Are you a postgraduate, honours student or early-career academic focusing on gender diversity, sexuality or queerness?

Join NUPSA for an evening dedicated to showcasing our collective research efforts. We are inviting postgraduate students, honours students or earlycareer academics to come and hone their presentation skills in front of a friendly crowd of their peers.

Students, supervisors and academics will be able to network, share ideas and discuss issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) people in a fitting nod to Godfrey Tanner, the unashamedly queer namesake of the GT Bar. Food will be provided, and attendees can purchase drinks from the bar.

Students wishing to present can send an abstract of no more than 200 words to the NUPSA GLBTI Representative at Barrie.Shannon@newcastle.edu.au

by COB Friday 7th of October.

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PANIC Feature Article Ruby Porter

Whenever I think about panic attacks or the anxiety attacks that wash over me, I’m reminded of those old Random Breath Test ads.

“You won’t know when, you won’t know where”.

The first time I had a panic attack, I was catching the 140 to Mayfield to stay at my mum’s house. I had to go to my law exam the next day. I was rushed, I was stressed, and I had been leaving lights and incense burners on when leaving the house recently. This time I was worried I didn’t close the front door. As the bus left the curb I was looking down my street, hands shaking, sweating, breathing quickening and shallow. I must’ve left the door open. The world is over. The house is going to be ransacked. I had to call my partner and ask him to leave work and check the front door, as I couldn’t sit in that silent panic for the next 40 minutes on the fucking 140.

The door was closed. Everything was fine, you idiot.

The next time I had a panic attack I was on a bike ride.

I had to use one of those stupid short BMX bikes that have the most uncomfortable seats in existence. I had false nails on. My hair looked stupid. My thighs were fat and white. I couldn’t keep up with my friend who was in front of me and I fell. It was the stupid uneven concrete.

My heart felt like it was going a mile a minute, it felt like someone had just jumped on my chest. I couldn’t breathe.

I could just feel that my big white round face was now bright red. I couldn’t stop crying and cars were driving past. I really just wanted to die.

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These panic attacks seem to occur at the worst of times.

Driving, riding a bike, catching the bus, before dinner, before a meeting, in the presence of people you don’t want to worry about you.

It’s been a year since those two incidents. I’ve seen my psychologists so many times that Medicare can’t subsidise the appointments. I’ve had incidents of dissociation where I feel like I’m standing two steps behind my body. I’ve also started listening to a lot more Drake and Kanye West.

I don’t know why this occurs. Is it because I’m seeking constant reassurance that I’m not doing the wrong thing?

Is it because I’m an attention seeker? Is it because I cannot deal with the reality of every day life? Is it because I’m weak? Yes. No. All of the above?

I haven’t had these intense panic attacks for a while. I just have really nice small moments of intense panic. Now more often than ever. Assignment due in two days but I’m going to go out today? Panic attack of hard crying and shaking in the car. Disagreement with family members?

Spend three nights crying when pretending to sleep. A meeting doesn’t go to plan? Begin pacing, a knotted stomach, clutching to phone so much my knuckles go white.

It feels like a constant muted feeling of anxiety. Constantly overthinking interactions with people at work, uni, friends, loved ones, just everyone. When I hear my partner talk to his father im convinced theyre talking about how I’ve done something wrong. I’m fucking paranoid, mate.

I’m trying to assess whether it’s really as bad as I think.

Okay, you’re getting anxious about catching that dodgy bus to uni? What’s the worst thing that’s going to happen?

I’ll die? What’s the best thing? Some beautiful friend will pull up at the bus stop offering a lift. What’s actually going to happen? The bus is going to be late and packed. Am I smart enough to think these things through before I go speed into ultimate panic mode? Of course not lmao.

Life goes on. I’ve found ways of escaping the anxiety; distracting myself with people and sleeping. This does negatively affect my keeping up with uni, but I seem to scrape by. As long as I have some sort of weak sense of hope, its manageable. Just manageable.

To make me feel better, I try to convince myself that there are benefits to having constant anxiety. I talk more to my partner about every single thing. In overanalysing all my actions before doing something, it minimises the possibility of my choices backfiring. This is not passive aggressive AT ALL.

Ruby Porter is a Law student and a NUSA Business/ Law Faculty Representative.

And that old Random Breath test ad continues “Better get a psychologist, son. You better get a real good one.”

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actually, no, i’m not okay for a long tim courage to properly now. do you actually c asking that to clear yo Jow am I supposed to b if I can’t even trust me? I’m not sure if you know how scary t to live with this for have to. I’m sorry, I k stop. Just promise you Feature Article

Ashlea Brumby

Most awareness days manage to cause a little bit of controversy; it’s par for the course when trying to highlight sensitive topics. But RUOK Day manages to collect quite a bit of hate. Now, I’ll readily admit that I did not follow the most rigorous processes in coming to this conclusion – spoke to about 10 people, read a couple of Op-Eds, few forum posts. Even if they do not represent the majority view, they represent some very good points. RUOK day has been converted into a workplace feel good day, and the same could be said for how individuals “celebrate” the day.

RUOK Day is supposed to start an ongoing conversation and promote suicide awareness and early prevention. The idea is so simple it is just 4 letters. Unfortunately, the execution often seems equally simplistic.

You’ll be lined up at Gloria’s, notice all the yellow cards around the area, turn to your friend in line and ask if they are ok in the most off hand way, they’ll ask back.

You both pat yourselves on the back for having done your bit. It can be worse with some workplaces, with yellow themed lunches looking similar to Melbourne Cup Sweeps.

Suicide prevention is about more than one question; it is about starting a conversation.

Without throwing blame around, the death of the conversation seems to be caused by everyone involved. Firstly, “are you okay?” is oddly similar to “how are you?”.

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okay. I haven’t been me. I don’t have the open up to you right care? or are you just your own conscuence? be able to trust you st what yu’re asking f I’ll ever be okay. Do that is? I don’t want orever. But maybe I know you’re busy. I’ll ou’ll be there for me.

And as anyone who has worked customer service will tell you, when you are asked “how are you?” the only acceptable response is “fine, and yourself?”.

It’s so ingrained, I actually found a discussion with people trying to explain this to an Englishman who couldn’t understand why customer service greetings are “Hi, how are you today?”.

are concerned about a friend, don’t ask whilst lined up for coffee. Wait until you have your coffee, find a quiet place to chat, and sincerely ask your friend how they are holding up. If they seem hesitant, don’t be pushy, but maybe direct the conversation to specific stresses. Don’t be afraid to show your own weakness. More advice on this can be found at www.ruokday.org.au/ ask-a-mate.

A flow on of this; when we are asked, we really don’t believe the other person wants to know.

You say fine whilst internally pulling your hair out. Or you don’t want to seem weak. After all, everyone has assessments, everyone is either working long hours or struggling to make ends meet. So why should you personally be the one not coping?

And if someone asks you how you are doing, don’t be afraid to be honest. With half of us seriously stressed, a quarter experiencing mental illness, and a whole host of other depressing statistics around student welfare, chances are the person asking really does care and can understand. You need to be honest if you need support.

Depending on where the stats are grabbed from, when asked anonymously around a third to half of students say they are really fucking stressed.

About half of that group are so stressed that they don’t know how to manage it. You aren’t showing unacceptable weakness by admitting it. You are probably opening the door so that others can be honest about their situation.

If anyone wants to chat, the Equity Collective holds regular meetings, often talking about just how crappy uni can be at times. If you think you need more professional support, the University Counselling Service can be contacted at 4921 5801, and HeadSpace on 4929 4201. Your GP can also provide support.

So when it rolls around again, let’s be the change we all want to see in RUOK Day. If you

Ashlea Brumby is a Law student and the NUSA Equity Convener.

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welcome to the world of online mental health support_ Feature Article Jacqui Soerensen

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I have recently joined Kellie in the online counselling team, and although I was aware of the myriad options available, I am now immersed in the world of online support. It is both exciting and daunting! I am certainly not old, however, I will admit to learning computing at school on a very basic set-up when the Internet was a very new phenomenon. Developments and opportunities in the online forum are great, but it can also be a little hard keeping up with the technology.

Online counselling and support is one area that is striding ahead in leaps and bounds. Certainly in the Australian tertiary education sector, the University of Newcastle is leading the charge. The online counselling service at UON offers support in a variety of platforms. The regular blogs provide information, tips and community announcements specifically for university students. The reviews are also aimed at students and give a description and honest appraisal of apps and websites. For many students who are studying online, away on placement or simply have limited transport options it can be difficult to access counselling support and information when needed. The second offering from the UON online counselling service is a regular drop-in service using text-chat on Skype. This is a fantastic forum for students to access information, support and referral options for a wide range of issues including mental health concerns and study difficulties. The university counselling service offers individual therapeutic sessions for students, the third branch of online counselling provides that one-on-one therapeutic support, in an online forum. This is fantastic for those students who can’t (or don’t want to) access support on campus.

Now, it would take forever to mention all the online support resources out there, and you would most likely desert me before I finished, so I will just give the highlights. I am sure you will be so excited that you will commit yourself to discovering the rest on your own!

So here are some of the highlights of the wide world of online support… Beyond Blue and Lifeline (eheadspace and Kids Helpline if you are under 25 and QLife for LGBTIQ support) all offer a webchat support service, this is amazing as difficult times for a lot of people can be at night when most support services are closed. The standard procedure is to go to the website, click on the online chat button and follow the instructions to be connected to a counsellor.

Another exciting (and expanding) area of online support is self-help. Websites like The Desk and The Centre for Clinical Interventions have tools and self-paced modules on topics such as study skills, assertive communication and anxiety. Other websites offer online treatment courses that have an element of clinical support, meaning you complete the self-paced program with some support (email or phone) from a qualified mental health clinician. These online tools (such as MindSpot and This Way Up) may fit your learning style, be the only support necessary at this point in time, or be a great starting point for accessing face-to-face therapeutic support. Smartphone Apps are another excellent resource to use with a number of different difficulties students face. To name just a few…MySmilingMind offers guided mindfulness and mediation, Mysleepbutton offers support around improving sleep, Breathe2relax offers guided breathing exercises to assist with stress and worry and My Study Life helps with time-management and organisation skills.

I hope this gives a snapshot of some of the exiting opportunities available in the online support world.

There is so much more available and I encourage you to do more research. If you find something awesome, please let us know! You are also welcome to contact us with any questions (questions are always welcomed and celebrated). Our website is a very good place to start as it gives great information and reviews about a number of online resources. - https://uonblogs.newcastle.edu.au/onlinecounselling/. Otherwise you can send us an email to onlinecounselling@newcastle.edu.au, or give us a call on 4921 6622.

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keeping well, mentally.

Feature Article Emma Edwards No matter what Instagram might suggest, a perfect,

own personal recipe for good mental health as well

worry-free life does not exist. For all of us, there will

as the warning signs that you are not as OK as you

be tough parts. We can’t avoid these, and trying to

were before. Without awareness, it is hard to pinpoint

do so generally leads us down a path of even greater

why you are feeling so stressed, so tired, so cranky, or

worry and anxiety. However, just like keeping your

overwhelmed.

body fit and healthy, there are things you can do to look after your mental health.

What keeps us well and feeling emotionally and mentally healthy will be different for all of us. A

You will probably have read or heard about some

combination of the above suggestions (nutrition,

generic suggestions before. Eating well, sleeping well,

sleep, exercise, connectedness, etc. ) is a balance that

making time for physical activity, managing stress,

may work well for many people. It is likely, however,

staying connected to others and asking for help when

that what works for you will be different to what

you need it are all important in staying resilient

works for your friends or family.

through life’s challenges. Many of us go through a cycle in regards to how much attention we are paying

Most of us will have something(s) we do that we enjoy

to looking after ourselves, and when we let it lapse,

so much that we lose track of time while doing it, that

we will generally notice a dip in the strength of our

leaves us feeling re-energised, that leaves us feeling

feeling of wellbeing.

like ourselves. For some, it is exercise – the feeling they get while pounding the pavement helps them to

This is normal, but it is helpful to be aware of your

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feel at one with themselves. For others, it might be

getting lost in a wonderful novel. Or feeling the spray

others? There often is, and such small changes can be

of the ocean on their face, wind in their hair. It might

the key towards feeling more satisfied with our lives

be something creative, it might be being around loved

and more equipped to take on the harder aspects of

ones, it might be exploring a new place or pottering

our reality.

around one’s own garden, seeking an adrenalin rush or sitting and watching the clouds go by.

If you would like some help identifying your warning signs or planning activities to increase health and

It is all too easy to be swept up in the busy pace of our

well-being there are plenty of support services

everyday lives and forget to take time for the things

available at the Uni. A good place to start is making

that make us feel alive. And of course there are often

an appointment with a Student Support Advisor, give

responsibilities taking up space and making us feel

us a call on 4921 6622.

as though we don’t have time for ourselves. And we certainly can’t do it all, all the time. Feeling as though we should is one sure way to undermine our mental health. However, noticing that you are not feeling your best might be a trigger to let you know that you need to reflect again on what is important for you in

Emma is a Student Support Advisor in Student Care and Equity, Student Central.

Photo of Redhead Beach by Barrie Shannon.

looking after your wellbeing, and to try to prioritise those things, and as much as you can to make them habit. This is something we will all continue to learn about over the course of our lifetimes.

If you really stopped to think, is there some small way you can do the things you love? Some small way you can change your routine to prioritise that area of your life that might be lacking attention at present? Some small way to care for yourself the way you would for

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Feature Article

WORDS: HANNAH STRETTON

Hannah Stretton

In the words of Justin Bieber - ‘baby, you should go and love yourself’. But, we all know it ain’t that simple. Self-love for some may seem as likely as meeting the Queen or bumping into Liam Hemsworth at Newcastle Uni, but like all art-forms self-love takes practice, persistence and a little bit of faith. Once you’ve mastered the ability to look at yourself with a little bit of lovin’ you’ll see success and happiness follow you on your path to Beyonce status.

Let the lesson begin…

Respect Yo’self If you have no respect for yourself, how do you expect others to have respect for you? People are born with constant images other than themselves to compare themselves to and this comparison never ends. So instead of focusing on other people’s qualities, start to look at

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your own goals, aspirations, and attributes and develop a respect for the framework that is you. PS: It can be as simple as accepting that compliment.

Eliminate the Negativity Love has never been the result of a negative situation, so self-love won’t be either. People who burden you with their negative perspective and ideas will never give you the opportunity to bring about positive introspect. Negative people and places can be hard to avoid, but spending more time around positive people, with an optimistic outlook on life will rub off on you. Ta dah! And there you have it, some self-love beginning. It’s really that simple. Look at it as if you are a rose, and how a rose will never bloom in a dark green house. You get the metaphor

never ourselves. The everyday grind of work, university, family & friend time may not open up lots of opportunities for alone time - but that’s where things need to change. Taking a day off of work, or telling your friends you need a day of relaxing is OK. The world will not end.

You can still be Superman/Superwoman and take off your cape every now and again.

Be Patient

Be Honest Whilst we may all think we are honest with ourselves, the truth to be told is we are often in denial. We will deny our failures, we will deny ourselves of our victories, ignore our feelings and focus on others before ourselves. The art of loving yourself stems from an acceptance of yourself, and that means accepting the good, the bad, and the ugly. No one is perfect, despite how they may appear, so being able to look at our trials and tribulations as part of life’s great adventure is important. What kind of adventure would life be if it were all sunshine and butterflies?

The best part of this lesson is that time isn’t our enemy. In fact it can be our best friend.

If you take time to do all the above without rushing it like it’s your end of year exam, then you will get the most benefit out of it. Patience is not everyone’s strong suit, but when you have to live with yourself for the rest of your life it’s best to understand that good things take time. Loving yourself and anyone in general takes time, so it’s also important to not give yourself a hard time about it - it’s the circle of life, so embrace it.

Hannah Stretton is studying a Bachelor of Communications degree at Newcastle University, Australia, where she is majoring in Journalism. Along with being a #writer, #feminist and all round #happyperson, Hannah can be found on Twitter retweeting anything from hilarious TV show references to political, feminist, and human rights issues.

Have ‘Me’ Time It’s not vanity, it’s sanity. This becomes very important to remember, because we often have all the time in the world for others but

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how to look after your mental health.

Feature Article Jaelea Skehan We know that four million Australians will experience mental illness this year alone. Many more of us will be affected as family members, friends, colleagues or school mates. No longer can we consider mental illness to be a fringe issue affecting only a few. In fact, it affects us all. October is mental health month and an opportunity to put the spotlight on mental health and mental illness, a time to reflect on how we are feeling and what we can do to look after ourselves.

Being mentally healthy and living well is important to every single one of us – whether we are living with a mental illness or not. It’s about enjoying life and fulfilling your potential. It’s having the ability to cope with stresses and sadness, and it’s about being connected to friends, family, community and culture.

What I often hear from people is that mental health is a “specialist” area, requiring specialist input and action. And true, the treatment system does require specialists and those with training, but there is a lot we can all do for ourselves and those around us.

We all know that to keep a car going, we have to fill it with petrol, check the oil and water regularly and give the tires some air. To see a bank balance grow, we need to make steady deposits. But how often do we take the time to reflect on whether we are giving ourselves what we need to flourish and live well?

It can be so easy for us to take our mental health for granted; to prioritise other things; to put it off until next week. It can also seem too big and too hard. But it’s not. There are some things everyone can do and just like we can’t put off adding petrol to our car for another week, we shouldn’t put off our mental health till another time either.

What better time than Mental Health Month to give them a go?

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Get enough sleep and rest. Sleep affects our physical and mental health, but can be the first thing we trade in when we get busy or stressed.

Take time out for things you enjoy. Balance in life is important, so taking time out for things you enjoy can make a difference to how you think and feel.

Be active and eat well. Our physical and mental health is closely linked, so adding exercise and nutritious food every day can make us feel better.

Nurture relationships and connect with others. Our connection to others is what builds us up and keeps us strong.

Learn to manage stress. If you have trouble winding down or managing thoughts you may find relaxation, yoga or writing your feelings down helpful.

Get involved and join in. Being part of a group with common interests provides a sense of belonging so find out about sporting, music, volunteer or community groups locally.

Build your confidence. Learning improves your mental fitness and taking on a new challenge can build confidence and give you a sense of achievement.

Be comfortable in your own skin. Everyone is unique and should be celebrated. Know who you are and what makes you happy.

Set realistic goals and deal with tasks one at a time. It is good to be specific when you set a goal to help keep you on track.

Reach out for help when you need it. Everyone needs support from time to time. Talking to a family member, a friend, your doctor or one of the many services available can make all the difference. Mental health and wellbeing is important to individuals, families, schools, workplaces and communities. There is a role for all of us to play. So, what will you do differently this month?

Further mental health information is available here:

Hunter Institute of Mental Health - www.himh.org.au For young people - headspace www.headspace.org.au For information about mental illness and living well – SANE Australia www.sane.org.au or beyondblue www.beyondblue.org.au For information about talking to someone you are worried about – www.conversationsmatter. com.au Jaelea Skehan is the director of the Hunter Institute of Mental Health.

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drugs, alcohol and your mental health Feature Article Lachlan Tiffen You know what…I’m just going to say it; substance use is a common part of Australian society! You probably didn’t expect a Drug & Alcohol Counsellor to say that, but the evidence supports it. And it’s not a recent phenomenon. I once read that Australia had the highest (per capita) use of cocaine in the world during the 1920s and 30s. Laws (and medicine) have changed a lot since then but… that’s my Nana’s era.

Not that I think she partook personally, but I do think about stories of her going out dancing all night at the community hall with Pop differently now.

I know when the topic of substance use comes up most people’s minds jump straight to images of illicit drugs (probably because those stories are most promoted in the media). But who thinks of a wine over dinner, coffee in the morning, Panadeine Forte when you’re hurt or taking prescription medication to ‘help stay awake to study’? Well, that’s psychoactive substance use too… and there are costs as well as benefits from use.

For example, we all know society wouldn’t function without coffee or tea (or energy drinks); just look at everyone lining up for their dose each morning.

Some say this ritual is a sign of “mass dependency”; the purpose being to avoid withdrawal symptoms like fatigue, fogginess and headaches, and get back to normal. You may not agree with this and only drink coffee because you ‘enjoy it’. Maybe so, but the two most cited reasons for taking any drugs are to ‘feel good’ and ‘feel better’. Think about it!

On the more severe usage end; did you know you could overdose on caffeine? Threw me the first time I read that; but put the weird experiences after

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a ‘few’ (double) short blacks during long shifts at the café into perspective. Research indicates if you consume between 400mg & 600mg of caffeine (3-7 coffees depending on coffee strength & your body weight) in a day you’re likely to experience negative side effects. Who’s doing the maths on that one?

When I contemplated my past, I realised that an over stimulated brain/body during my café days may have been why I started needing a few beers after work to get to sleep (you know, a depressant to counteract the stimulant). I also realised how that habit still gets triggered years later if I’m stressed and need to sleep.

Clearly caffeine is not what brings most people to D&A counselling, although I do discuss the effect of caffeine on sleep with a lot of students. But it gives a framework of substance use almost everyone can relate to. There is general consensus that people first try a substance out of curiosity, to fit in with peers, to experiment or just for the thrill. After initial use, in the early stages, people reuse substances because they experience some functional benefit; otherwise they wouldn’t do it again! These benefits might be to improve mood, better concentration, increase energy, to relax, social engagement, enhance an experience and so on.

Everyone has different reasons why they choose to use (or not) one substance over another, in this situation but not that one. Specific drugs alter the way users think, feel and behave by disrupting specific neurotransmitter systems. It is the excessive stimulation or inhibition (compared to usual functioning) of these different systems that produce the intoxication effects of the substance.

To state the obvious; it is during intoxication that acute harms usually occur and intoxication level relates to how likely a harm is to occur. For example; the depressant alcohol disrupts the GABA system which is integral in managing muscle movement; this means both leg muscles (eg. have a few beers, stumble around, fall down, hurt yourself) and respiration (eg. scull a bottle of whiskey, pass out, stop breathing) amongst others are affected. The stimulant caffeine disrupts the adrenaline/adenosine system, which is involved in cognitive arousal (eg. one coffee increases alertness for next 4-6 hours) and physical arousal (eg. drink too many ‘Mother’ drinks, notice your heart is pounding).

factors that may lead to an adverse reaction? This is the same for that pill offered at a festival or the already chopped up pot you’re about to smoke; do you know what the effect will be for you?

One thing that differentiates substances, but also individual users, is the amount required for toxicity to occur. Both coffee and methamphetamine are classified as stimulants but the amount of methamphetamine required for a toxic dose is a lot less.

For one person an appointment might be about strategies to change behaviours; for another it’s just to get some information for their own research.

I know substance use happens in this community, it happens throughout Australia. I am not trying to stop people making their own choices, just help them make informed ones. If you are interested in talking about your (or someone else’s) substance use just contact Student Care & Equity - Counselling on 4921 6622 or email counselling@newcastle.edu. au and tell the Student Support Advisor you’d like to talk to Lachlan.

This is where most people get into trouble. Ask yourself; if someone gave you a plastic bag with a white/grey/beige/etc colour powder in it and said it was speed/goey/whiz/fast/ox/etc., would you know how much to take to ensure a non-toxic dose? In fact, even if you knew the purity, the adulterants cut in, the chemicals used to make it and the skills of the chemist in forming the correct molecules and not some new psychoactive substance with unknown effects; are you aware of any personal risk

I understand time at University is an opportunity to explore, experiment, socialize, party and I’m not trying to stop that. However, I also know everyone aims for something after Uni (even if it’s to work out what they want to do). I believe this aim is more achievable if we minimise the harms associated with choices made. So what I offer UON students is a confidential source of information and support related to substance use as a D&A Counsellor.

Lachlan Tiffen is a Drug and Alcohol counsellor at the University of Newcastle Counselling Service.

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