Not Alone: Milly Bannister on her lifelong struggle with mental illness

At 15, Milly Bannister had no way to understand what was happening to her. Now she’s aiming to change that for the next generation.

“You need to learn resilience, or you’ll never make it in the real world.”

Ten years ago I didn’t know what anxiety actually looked like, or that depression could be hereditary and something that medication was designed to treat. It was made clear to us during our formative years, that only the unprivileged or trauma-survivors suffered from illness of the mind, so I put my ‘differences’ down to personality defects.

At 15, Milly Bannister had no way to express or understand her mental health struggles.

Quite simply, we were never given the language, or the context, in which to identify, prevent or manage legitimate concerns for our mental wellbeing.

Resilience aside, it was only when my compassionate 15-year-old self dived headfirst into an all-encompassing emotional support role that I felt how dark things really can get for young people.

Despite my attempt to keep a close friend of mine from being pulled under, they waded through all sorts of mental challenges, not limited to suicidal ideation. The frame of mind I was in borrowed everything I had (from literally the depths of my soul), in order to keep them alive, day after day.

Of course, I would do it again in a heartbeat, but looking back now, knowing what I know, this experience really was the beginning of my lifelong struggle with mental illness.

There’s a good chance that your 15-year-old self has done the same.

Research from the Queensland Family Child Commission shows that the majority of young people seek help from each other before they seek help from any adult.

If you’re weighing up the narratives, you’ll find this troubling, simply because of the fact that young people don’t know what they’re doing. No one is teaching them and no one is supporting their peer-to-peer efforts to pull mates out of (or sit with them in) dark places.

Despite the genuine ambition of young Australians wanting to do more about the rising suicide rates, alongside the large yet gradual increase in the provision of mental health services available to them, there still has not been a detectable reduction in the prevalence of psychological distress.

In fact, the Government clearly states on their suicide prevention sites, that for every youth suicide, (currently the leading cause of death in this age group), there are 100 to 200 more attempts.

Mental health and suicide are not easy subjects to talk about, but news.com.au wants you to know you’re Not Alone. News.com.au’s Not Alone will raise awareness about these issues and provide you with the resources needed to reach out for help.

By now, I’m sure you can make an educated guess as to why I rolled up my sleeves, called in the experts and formed a preventative mental health education not-for-profit, with youth at the centre of it. After a stint in the lifestyle journalism scene, and building my namesake digital profile, this felt like the absolute best use of my time and skills.

ALLKND is the ultimate passion project. We’re very proud to be Australia’s first digital, peer-to-peer mental health first aid program for youth.

Since incorporation as an Australian Charity at the top of 2021, we’ve grown to over 20 volunteers and brought three cutting-edge preventative, peer-to-peer mental health education programs to life — alongside developmental youth psychologist and Board Director, Amy Kate Isaacs and the University of Queensland School of Psychology.

The ALLKND staff are passionate about helping young people with their mental health.

"We’re very proud to be Australia’s first digital, peer-to-peer mental health first aid program for youth."

We’ve also had the pleasure of working with some of the country’s leading high schools, reached more than 1.5 million Aussie youths with our digital content and raised more than $40,000 in funding.

The most special part of the work we do centres around the engagement of the young Aussies on the ground making up our Youth Board of Directors who, aside from their day jobs as high school students, advocate ever so passionately for youth suicide prevention initiatives.

Next year, we’ll focus our resources on scaling preventative program delivery and evaluating our impact.

"I hope to rewrite the story for my 15-year-old self and those like her," explains Milly Bannister, founder of ALLKND.

I hope to rewrite the story for my 15-year-old self and those like her. I want to instil in her that she’s not anomalous or inadequate for falling short of the ‘resilience’ mould as a result of undiagnosed or unsupported mental illness.

I believe in the #knowmoredomore effect and, like many in this space, believe that there needs to be stronger preventative measures taken to inspire more compassion, smash the stigma and save more young lives.