I'm Ashlea, I'm 25 years old and I'm a single parent to my two year old, Alfie and I live
in Trinity Gardens, Adelaide.

It's just Alfie and I that are here. I found out that I was going to be a parent
just after I finished my degree and three weeks before my graduation.

I guess it was good though because I wasn't in the middle of a career or a job that needed
my time, I could just go and have a baby.

I was stressing about breastfeeding and I had ideas about how it was going to be and
it was just going to be easy.

Breastfeeding is not easy, I struggled for the first month and then after that I had
feelings of anxiety come up.

I pushed through it and I kind of regret doing that because I ended up not OK.

I think the best thing I did for myself was stop.

I didn't know that I had postnatal depression or anxiety until Alfie was four months old.

Every time I was breastfeeding I was 'do not touch me, do not talk to me' and I was very
dismissive.

And I was starting to feel a bit distant. I ended up going to the doctor and he was
like 'It sounds like you've got postnatal anxiety and depression and we're going to
get you to see a counsellor, maybe put you on some medication see how you go with that'
and I think for me just knowing what was actually happening and not feeling disjointed really
helped.

And then once I knew what was going on it was a lot easier to overcome that.

For me it's just been all about eating healthy, being active, getting out of the house most days.

Do your research, maybe stay off Google, only go on Government health sites, because otherwise

you can go down the rabbit hole and stress yourself out.

Talking to other young parents and once your child's born going to parent's groups, mother's
groups and just creating a community of people that you can ask questions.

Ask your parents what they went through. Ask anyone who has a child, they don't have
to be a young parent, just talk to parents.

Because someone will be able to give you that tiny little bit of advice that will save your
sanity.

Because, trust me, I've gotten some little tidbits here and there and they've saved my
sanity quite a lot.