Nic Newling is a dedicated advocate for mental health and suicide prevention. He travels around the country speaking about his own experience with a mood disorder and losing his older brother to suicide as a teenager, to change the way mental illness is addressed in schools, workplaces and communities. 

Now 28 years old, Nic says he was a very ambitious child. He had decided very early on what his whole future would hold, and set his sights on becoming a veterinarian. But in his first few years of high school Nic says he changed a lot. 

“I’d really enjoyed primary school and had won a scholarship to a school I really enjoyed,” he says. “I had started struggling a lot academically and personally, which was a very unexpected change. How I was acting wasn’t ‘me’. I was getting very anxious and was no longer able to think properly in class. I realised I was losing more than my happiness; I was losing part of myself.” 

At the end of Year 8 Nic was admitted to an adolescent psychiatric facility where he was treated for nine months as one of the youngest patients. 

“On one hand it was terrible because it was very confusing. I had symptoms of psychosis and I was deflated by a loss of hope for the future,” he says. 

NSWMSC is committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of medical students, and is pleased to offer medical students FREE Mental Health First Aid Courses.

Three Universities have signed up to this initiative (UNSW, Notre Dame and Newcastle). More information can be found on the NSWMSC website, under 'Events'.

For feedback regarding our Mental Health & Wellbeing initiatives, please get in touch with the NSWMSC Chair, Neel Gobin, by emailing [email protected]