My name's Bella and I'm 19 years old. I live in Brisbane but I'm originally from rural SA.

My mental health story began when I was quite young, but by the age of 15 I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. 
It was taking a toll on my academic life and my social life. I was finding it very hard to socialise with my friends and to open up to them, 
often cancelling plans last minute and stuff just because I couldn't deal with what I was going through, I couldn't just get on with it.

Living in Whyalla, it's a different experienceto living in the city, it's got a really good
sense of community, and everyone knows everyone and it's just nice, but that can also be a double-edged sword, you know, if someone finds
out you're going through a hard time, the whole town will know. And living in a rural town as well, issues such as mental health
are still very stigmatised and not talked about openly, and you know, going to the doctor's to ask to be put on a mental health care plan
is something you don't do, they'll try and talk you out of it, because we don't have the resources, like psychologists or psychiatrists
visiting, so they don't know where to refer you to or to help you. So it's not something you easily go to the doctors for, like you
would probably in the city. 

So, as someone living in a rural area I definitely turned to the internet for help and that's where I found ReachOut, through a simple Google
search, and that helped me realise that my issues were real and they needed to be seen by a professional and it was a hard road but
I got there eventually. And I'm significantly better than I was four years ago and that's because of therapy and medication and through
finding support through online resources such as ReachOut.