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Finishing high school was not a time filled with relief and excitement for Dylan, as he, or any other young person might hope for. The fork in the road and its possibilities did not represent a path to new adventures but instead an unpaved and unclear journey that was difficult to face.
Making the transition from the predictability and stability of life as a child at school, to an independent adult – who is free to make decisions and take chances, can be a stressful time for many young people. Particularly, if they struggle with anxiety.
While Dylan didn’t know it at the time, he looks back now and realises that unhelpful thinking, behaviours and habits were the result of anxiety and he could not overcome them alone. After years of increasing frustration and isolation, Dylan reached out for help. He first sought advice from is GP who recommended psychotherapy.
After finding the psychologists he was referred to were not suitable, or were not practicing, his Dad recommended trying headspace – as his brother had been receiving support there.
“I am very thankful to have ended up at headspace, as the more holistic nature of the support feels to me, much more constructive than a single professional,” said Dylan.
“headspace has supported me with counselling, peer support and IPS*. Counselling has helped me understand the causes of issues in my past and structure strategies to deal with my anxiety and change the behaviours warped by it, peer support has helped me understand and appreciate the potential for real, significant change and helped me engage those practical strategies to push at my anxiety, and IPS has specifically helped with seeking employment and given me confidence in engaging myself professionally – a domain I had felt enormous insecurity with and intensely avoided,” added Dylan.
Today Dylan is focussed on the future. He describes feeling relieved at how far he has come and is encouraged by his progress – with a greater sense of who he is and what he has to offer. Feelings of being overwhelmed and frustrated have been replaced by hope for the future and that excitement that he had previously missed out on, is flooding in. Dylan reports feeling a sense of security to not just try new experiences but create them!
