
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.