Lived Experience Forum

[cameron]

@Claired Thank you so much for coming!

[MDT]

well said @Snowie

[s-jay]

Thank you for sharing that about Andy, Cameron. He seemed like a lovely gentle soul who obviously touched all of your lives and all of Australia got to see that. Glad you all supported each other through that, can't have been easy

[cameron]

@Zoe7 Thank you. That means a lot.

[s-jay]

So like I mentioned, for the last week or so we were taking questions from the community about stigma and How ‘Mad’ Are You? These questions are for Cameron and everyone here with a lived experience in the forum tonight to answer.

So, Cameron and everyone here, we’ve had this question come in from the community: Has mental health effected your applying for a job?

[cameron]

Has mental health affected your applying for a job?

Very much so. Part of the symptoms associated with my diagnosis are that I have difficulty managing certain kinds of stress. It becomes part of the management of my own health to avoid certain situations. High volume and results oriented positions like cold sales would certainly not do my brain any good.

When I was working in a banking position back in the early 2000’s, I didn’t disclose my diagnosis. Anxiety and depression were barely appearing on the corporate radar. Throwing a diagnosis of schizophrenia into the mix would have generated more fear than acceptance back then.

[Liss23]

Hi everyone! I unfortunately missed both episodes and I'm kicking myself. It's interesting to hear that it was hard to distinguish between people. Really depends what sort of day you catch people. We all have a fine line between being 'mentally healthy' or 'mentally unheathy'. 

Lovely to have you on the forum Cameron and well done for putting your hand up for the show 🙂

[MDT]

I have a question.

IT seems like a lot of the media are critical of the program. They are arguing that it is bad and doesn't do anything to "combat" stigma. What do you make of this criticism @cameron ?

[Claired]

Great show and thanks for running this forum

[s-jay]

Hi @Liss23 - thanks for coming! You can always watch it on 'On-Demand'!