Your Stories
MY STORY - KELLY
Posted by Top Livin on
I’m more than happy to share my story and when I was asked if I’d like to write about it, I said yes without a second thought. However, it’s taken me weeks to finally sit down and type it out and another few to finish it. The reason being? I feel so far removed from the person that was diagnosed with clinical depression. I have had down moments since then but nowhere near as low as what I experienced during that time. As I type that, I realise how important it is to keep a diary to remember the different...
MY STORY - CRAIG
Posted by Top Livin on
668. By itself that is an innocuous number. But when I tell you that is how many people took their own lives in the past year in New Zealand it has a lot more meaning. That is 668 people that thought that they couldn’t carry on. That is 668 people that thought they couldn’t ask for help. This is also a number that has been increasing over the past four years. We are now at an all-time high of suicides within New Zealand. Pretty sobering isn’t it? I have been there. I know exactly what it is like to be...
My Story - Samantha
Posted by Top Livin on
One of my best friends Chris Richards unfortunately lost his battle with mental illness in January... he had been battling his own demons for a couple of years now, before deciding to end it by jumping from a cliff at North Bondi. As much as we knew that he was struggling (he had a very tough time with a failed relationship that was very toxic, had struggled to keep a job, had run out of money) none of us had any idea that it was that bad. He would never talk to anybody about it. He was too proud... he...
MY STORY - COURTNEY
Posted by Top Livin on
2018 is the year that marks my three year anniversary of surviving suicide. What makes someone who seemingly from the outside, seemed absolutely fine, to do something so drastic to themselves? Let’s start from the top. I have battled depression and anxiety for the majority of my 27 years on this earth. I was subject to a tough upbringing laden with psychological and physical abuses. The favourite saying of this person was, “You’ll never amount to anything”. Being told that as a child, repeatedly, by someone who is supposed to love and cherish you the most, is very damaging for...
My Story - Shane
Posted by Top Livin on
When I was 17 my best friend Corey needed footy players for this new Colts team. When I say needed players, he needed me to stand on the oval for 80 minutes and contribute nothing to the game. Surprisingly Corey was agreat recruiter and nearly everyone around me played for Kingsley. 4 years later October 12, 2002 we decided to go to Bali for the annual footy trip, I could not make it as I had other plans. The night the team arrived just six hours into that trip, the nightmare began, when over 700 kilograms of explosives were detonated...