News
Emma is a young woman who, five years ago, decided to move away from home.
She started attending uni and working to support herself. As the pressures of school started mounting up, Emma noticed she was struggling with feelings of being anxious about everything.
Those anxious feelings turned into panic attacks, which affected her ability to get a good night sleep. Soon she found she was in a vicious cycle and unable to get out of bed to face the world. Her day-to-day life was greatly affected to the point she couldn’t attend uni or even hold down a job for very long. Emma found she wasn’t able keep up and decided she needed to get support.
At the time, Emma was living in Wollongong and reached out to headspace Wollongong. This was a positive experience and she felt listened to and supported. Unfortunately, Emma had to make the hard decision in mid-2017 to let go of her dreams of attending uni and return to Goulburn – where her family were to support her.
Emma was surprised to discover that there’s a headspace in Goulburn and her positive experience at Wollongong headspace convinced her it was a safe place to find additional support. Emma shares how the people at headspace are caring and gave her the time she needed to talk about what she was going through without judgment.
The counsellors provided her with strategies for managing the panic attacks, which she still uses today. Eventually, Emma was able to get a diagnosis, which she found very helpful, because it helped her to make sense of what was going and confirm that what she was experiencing was real. As Emma found new strategies to manage what she was dealing with, her confidence started growing and she wanted to start meeting other young people within Goulburn. The counselling work Emma completed gave her the courage to become part of the headspace Goulburn Youth Reference Group (YRG), which advocates for other young people being able to access help.
“Emma has been an important part of the YRG for almost two years and sadly (for us), she is stepping down because of where she is moving to,” said Gail, headspace Goulburn Service Manager.
“Emma is in a fantastic place in life and has been panic attack free for over 6 months. She has recently moved out of her parents’ home, holds down two jobs and will soon restart uni.”
“I have been so impressed with how she has flourished and the way she courageously shares her story to help others find their way forward,” added Gail.
