Young author to share book about her demons
WANT to meet a real life author who’s written about her childhood mental demons?
Charlize Mulholland hasn’t yet finished school but already she’s embarked on a quest to educate others, young and old, about the effects of mental illness on individuals and their families and friends.
She’ll be on hand to meet people and speak about her book, The Thread of a Demon, at Dubbo’s Macquarie Regional Library on Friday evening, July 9 from 6-7pm.
Charlize is keen to talk about the process of the book, mental health and so much more.
She says society has placed an unfortunate stigma around the concept of mental health, regarding the negative side of mental illness being considered a weakness and feels there’s been the feeling we shouldn’t talk about it since we feel like it burdens other people.
“There shouldn’t be this expectation on how big your problems are or how little they feel compared to others because either way you will only feel better if you reach out and ask for help from others,” she told Dubbo Photo News.
“The emphasis that community places on this stigma affects the majority of those who are struggling with their mental health, as they either get knocked down by those around them who believe only those who are weak ask for help or that mental (ill) health is only a theory.
“This misconception means those who are dealing with mental health start to believe it and their overthinking then manipulates their own perception of mental health as they shut down and isolate themselves from everyone.”
Charlize says that’s why talking openly about mental health is so incredibly important, because people actually getting help is way more important than any kind of stigma.
She’s also concerned that people suffering from mental ill health use this concept as an excuse to acknowledge their feelings and shut themselves down in a way to mould into social expectations of mental health, regularly using destructive coping mechanisms and ultimately suffering in silence.
“I came to realise this a couple of years ago, believing that mental health is a weakness. I isolated myself from everyone. I caved in to unhealthy coping mechanisms because of those around me,” Charlize said.
“The people around me didn’t speak badly about mental health, they simply didn’t understand mine as I used my mental ill health and turned it into anger, making people believe it wasn’t depression or anxiety.”
She said those around her believed she was just a moody teenager and because that was what everyone thought, she made their reality her reality and turned into a self-absorbed teenager – or at least that’s what everyone else thought.
But she says The Thread of a Demon is her personal mental health journey and while she cannot speak for every single teenager she believes every teenager deserves their own voice within their own mental health journey as only they know what they’re feeling.
“But as a community we can work together to destroy this stigma, to allow teenagers to feel comfortable and proud of doing so as we all deserve a chance at living life to the best of our abilities without the expectations of everyone around us,” she said.
“I wrote The Thread of a Demon to give not only an inside story to life in a teenager’s world that is living with depression and
anxiety, but allowing teenagers to know that they’re not by themselves, that the majority of teenagers are dealing with something, but we’re all misunderstood teenagers misunderstood by one another.
“But to understand that mental ill health doesn’t shape who you are, it isn’t who you are to the core if you don’t allow it to be, that is why we should be challenging the perception of mental health and allowing both mental and physical health to be a social norm.”