Teenage depression survivor’s suicide prevention goal

A survivor of teen depression has set himself an epic exercise goal to raise money for suicide prevention. See the challenge.

Jed Zimmer, 24, of Bendigo, has started a gofundme page to raise money for suicide prevention. He is a personal trainer and has set himself a 24 hour goal to burn: 1000 calories on a skierg machine1000 push-ups, 200 pull ups, run a half marathon, 3.9km Swim and100km bike ride. His target is $5000 for SPAN.

For depression survivor Jed Zimmer, it wasn’t until his mother found him crying on his bedroom floor that he finally sought help for the mental health battle he had been fighting for years.

The outwardly happy and athletic teenager had been quietly suffering since year seven.

Now aged 24, and a personal trainer, Mr Zimmer has launched a $5000 fundraising goal for suicide prevention and set himself a mammoth list of physical challenges to attract sponsorship.

The Bendigo-based athlete intends to complete 1000 push-ups, run a half marathon, swim 3.9km, bike ride to 100km and more all within 24 hours, in a fundraising push that will test his limits.

“It is a huge goal and I’m not even sure it’s possible but I wanted to do something really ambitious,” he said.

Jed Zimmer, 24, of Bendigo, has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for suicide prevention.

The money raised will go to Suicide Prevention Awareness Network (SPAN), and a target of $5000 has been set.

The cause is close to his heart, having been in the grips of depression and anxiety for most of his teenage years.

As he looks back now, on the threshold of one of the biggest athletic challenges of his life, he is able to calmly reflect on his journey.

The year he started high school, he had a knee reconstruction which put him on the sidelines of his favourite sports.

Anxiety set in and he couldn’t shake it even when he was back to full health.

Bendigo athlete Jed Zimmer, right, as a year seven student, with his uncle Ben Irwin.

Even now, the full nature of what he experienced remains hard to attribute to any particular cause.

“From about year seven there were early signs I was struggling but I couldn’t work out what it was at the time,” he said.

“For five to six years I held it all to myself. I wouldn’t talk to anybody about it. Even when my knee was better and I was back playing sports, it didn’t go away, and I thought ‘I should be fine now’.”

Mr Zimmer said he hoped talking about mental health would become more commonplace.

“My advice is just to normalise it because there’s lots of people in the same boat,” he said.

“Once I started talking about it things became easier.”

Mr Zimmer has since seen mental health professionals and used medication to control the symptoms.

Help is at hand Key national 24/7 crisis support services include: • Lifeline 13 11 14; lifeline.org.au • Suicide Call Back Service; 1300 659 467; suicidecall backservice.org.au • MensLine Australia 1300 789 978; mensline. org.au • beyondblue 1300 224 636; beyondblue.org.au • conversationsmatter. com.au Key national youth support services include: • Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; kidshelp.com.au • headspace 1800 650 890 www.headspace.org.au • The “Can We talk” campaign also is working with Mindframe; mindframe-media.info