Aaron Woolley
Ngaiterangi
Adolescence is a notoriously difficult time, but Aaron Woolley probably had more to deal with than most. AS a teenager, he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, which was quickly discovered by schoolmates in his small town.
"I lost contact with school friends; they just withdrew from me and they had their own group of people. We grew apart because they were threatened and didn't want to know me anymore. They thought mental illness was contagious," he recalls.
As a result of such discrimination, Aaron was also physically bullied: "I had acid thrown at me; my t-shirt and sweatshirt got singed when they set fire to me once; people tried to stab me in the back with scissors..."
Even after he had grown up and left school the discrimination continued:
"When I had recovered, I had my personal journey in the local newspaper. So, people knew I had a mental illness and they would say to me ‘oh you are that mad person' stuff like that," he says.
Aaron has faced such comments from his workplace to the local petrol station, and says that discrimination is still a problem these days.
"Discrimination is still happening out there. There are still a lot of people who live in the past. I was speaking to one woman who told me that I didn't know what I was talking about when it came to mental illness and unfair treatment because they come from a makutu [curse]. That doesn't sit well with me, that old-school stuff, but some people still live in the past. They are the ones that are the hardest to try to educate," he says.
Aaron says the cause of such discrimination comes from ignorance about mental illness and a lack of understanding.
"It's not until it actually happens to that person or someone close to them that their perception changes," he says.
Yet Aaron, who is now a service coordinator for Like Minds, Like Mine, remains open about his experience of mental illness.
"I think it's because I have worked in Like Minds, Like Mine and been involved in consumer movement that I'm not afraid to talk about it," he explains.
According to Aaron, people with experience of a mental illness need supportive friends and he has some advice for people who want to support someone with a mental illness:
"It's just about listening and supporting them through that to tell the people that there is hope and not to give up."
