Learn From Me: Speak Out, Seek Help, Get Treatment

BY STEVE ROBSON

I discovered CrazySocks4Docs Day – held annually on 1 June – only this year. The day aims to “encourage conversations about mental health and help reduce the stigma for doctors experiencing mental illness”. When I discovered the day thanks to my burgeoning Twitter obsession, I experienced an incredible and overwhelming reaction.

Almost exactly 30 years before, as an intern in the central Queensland city of Rockhampton, I had tried to kill myself. Three decades later, I am now President of a specialist college, but I had kept the entire episode to myself and tried to forget it. I am deeply ashamed of not learning from my own experience and using it to help others.

I hope it isn’t too late.