Millie Corin is a powerful advocate for getting greater mental health support into all primary schools in the ACT.
Powerful because she's been there. She knows what it's like not to get that support, to feel incredibly lonely carrying that burden, and to see her mental health issues escalate into her teenage years. That's even with the happiest of childhoods and the most loving of families.
"I was 10 when I first had a panic attack, but I didn't have the words to describe how I was feeling. I didn't even realise that young people could suffer from things like anxiety," she said.
"I didn't understand what was happening and my family didn't either. We thought it was a physical thing and we treated it as such. We went to a doctor who dismissed it as hormones or low blood pressure or something.
"We were at a loss and just kind of put up with it until it started to get worse. Some days I couldn't go to school because I was shaking and dizzy and nauseous on the couch."
That first panic attack was in year four. Her untreated anxiety resulted in her first depressive episode in year 6. "I didn't think 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds could have a depressive episode," she said. "So I kept it to myself because I thought I would be dismissed."
By the time Millie was in year 8, she was suffering suicidal thoughts and self-harm.
"At the time, I didn't know what was triggering it," she said. "I can look back now and see that my dad had been sick a few years earlier in hospital and I know that was quite traumatic for me at the time.
"But I had a really supportive family. I was doing well at school. Everything seemed fine for me on the surface and I didn't know why I was feeling this way."
When she was in year eight and feeling suicidal, she eventually reached out to friends who contacted the school counsellor. Her family was also informed by the counsellor.
"It was only when it had reached a point of crisis that I got the help that I needed," she said.
"Even when I got help, it continued to worsen because it had been going on for so many years. But that's when I got the professional support from psychologists and doctors."
The turning point was that her maelstrom of emotions now had a name and there was a clear pathway of how to deal with her anxiety and depression.
"It meant there were solutions we could explore and things we could do to make it better," she said. "It made it more clear and it didn't feel like my fault anymore or that there was something wrong with me."
Now a poised and articulate 23-year-old working in the public service, Millie is certain things would have been different had there been earlier intervention in primary school.
"My story didn't start in year seven, it started well before then," she said.
Millie has since learnt the tools to cope with her anxiety and to deal with it before it gets too much.
"I've learnt to manage my anxiety so I can go about a really full life," she said.
"I still have panic attacks but I have my strategies and my coping skills and I've built them up over 10 years so they're well ingrained now. And I am much more confident now about knowing what to do when I feel my anxiety start to peak or I wake up feeling a bit lower than usual. I pick it up really early and I act fast."
Millie has also become a volunteer with Mental Illness Education ACT (MIEACT), a local mental health and well-being education provider for workplaces, community groups and secondary schools across the Canberra region and surrounding area
Like her fellow volunteers, Millie goes into schools and talks to students from year seven to 10 about her story, letting them hear they are not alone.
"The most impactful thing is when people come up to you and say, 'Thank you for sharing your story. I've experienced similar things' or 'I didn't know anyone else felt that way'," she said.
"That is incredible for me and I hope I am making an impact on their life. The other thing is I connect them to help and I have come away from sessions knowing students are more confident about asking for help, just by the questions they've asked ' 'What help lines are available?', 'Who can I talk to?'."
Now, Millie says that same mental health support is vital for primary school children, saying families and communities are "crying out for it".
"I wish someone could have spoken to me in year three and four when [my anxiety] was bubbling away and starting to build," she said.
Showing the enduring effect of the program, Millie became a volunteer with MIEACT after another of its speaker came to her school when she was in year 10.
"I had been in treatment for two years by then and still a bit up and down and I was kind of coming to terms with the fact I might be dealing with my mental health for a long time and it was a really great experience to hear them talk about how they manage their mental health and how it's not a horrible thing. It's actually empowering to understand and manage your own mental health," she said.
"It changed my life having that MIEACT speaker come in and it really motivated me to keep working on my own mental health."
MIEACT is now raising funds to develop a new mental health education program for Canberra's primary schools.
It will be one of the beneficiaries of the Hands Up for Canberra Giving Day on March 9 when every donation will be matched for the first $5000 raised.
- Please donate what you can here.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed by phoning Lifeline 13 11 14; Mensline 1300 789 978; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732.
