Category: Mental health

Mental health

Winter

My name is Mitchell Lancaster, I’m a 24 year old singer songwriter. I have struggled against, and learnt to work with my mental health issues throughout my teen years (and many others). When I was 16 years old, I attempted to take my own life. 2 years later, I was introduced to music.
I have always had a passion for creating and sharing stories, and music was a light that showed me that I was able to transmute my own struggle into a narrative that could, perhaps, land for others and resonate with experiences that are not so isolated as we may believe.
“Winter” is a song I have written myself and produced with my band Dreams of Indigo, and comes at the tale of mental illness from the perspective of an old lover – one who you fail to lock the doors on time and time again.
Sharing this story has allowed me to move productively with my own pain, and opened my eyes to the stigma that surrounds these struggles, and my own desire to demystify it.

Inca Warrior – Awaking the Voice Within

Pitch your story…At the age of 6 I became a carer for my mother who has been constantly suicidal through my life. I too am a survivor of child abuse and have had first-hand experience with PTSD. Statistics show that due to my history I am at higher risk of suicide and ongoing mental health issues. I refuse to accept this. I am living proof that as individuals we can change this reality.

When I was growing up I had no idea that my personal story would end up impacting the lives of thousands of Australians. I have the bloodline of the traditional Inca people in me. I feel fortunate that those who have walked before me have smashed the poverty cycle, breaking the integrational trauma cycle that has allowed me to become the person I am today. #incawarrior

I Owe My Life To Vietnam War

My grandfather was the army secretary at the time through different events. He once tasked Mary, his daughter to deliver a package while in Laos, Vietnam, to my father Charle’s work. He and Mary wed. My father was in the US Air Force, I was born on a US Air Force base in England. Having a beard grayed from LSD and having faced death after a near fatal assault in Canberra, surgical metal plate in his head, Bruce has fought and overcome challenges most would not dream, living now in Brisbane.