@Ru-bee @tyme @Jynx 

Peer support has been the key thing that has me feeling that I've made any progress or improvement this year with my ability to cope with my depression and anxiety. I tried psychology but I found it nowhere near as beneficial.  Mainly due to the cost and not finding a psychologist who I felt was a good fit for me.   With so few subsidised visits per year and the even greater cost of trying more services after my 10 visits are completed there was no real option to try more services to find a better fit for me.  And even if you find a service with a gap fee you can afford, with or without using the 10 MHCP visits, it's just far too expensive to get the amount of visits I feel like I need to really help.

As someone who had very little support around me 2 years ago and finding my first attempts at psychology not as helpful as i would like, I looked to peer support through online and in-person support groups.  Not only did this give me a connection with a lot of people who I felt were much more understanding of what I was going through but it allowed me to start to build a sense of self worth and confidence from these connections.  I could now have a support network around me that I never had before.

This helped me to finally start to find a way out of a really difficult time in my life, which in turn allowed me to offer my experiences to help other people who were struggling mentally themselves.

The help and support I've received through these peer support networks this year has not only helped me to finally start a healing process but given me a desire and passion to get much more involved in peer support.  So far this year I have...

• Joined a number of online and in-person support groups
• I have helped to create and run a support group
• Spent more and more time trying to offer advice and support  to people who reach out with their own mental health struggles
• Completed training and workshops to better to be able to support people
• Attended forums
• Volunteered for studies and research by sharing my own experiences
• Enrolled for a Cert IV - Mental Health, peer work in 2025
• Gotten involved in activities to raise awareness and raise funds 

All of this because of how helpful I found peer support through a very difficult time in my life after finding too many barriers to adequate professional mental health support.