Our lost youth: Goulburn to Orange - Scott Evans talks importance of mental health workshop

The Southern Tablelands man has travelled to the Central West on four occasions in the past month-and-a-half to take part in a mental health workshop designed to help break down stigmas and get me to open up.

It was Mr Evan's connection to the workshop's organiser and Orange man, Jamie Stedman, which made the drive a no-brainer.

"I was renovating a house a few years ago and the experience I had, it gets a bit raw to talk about," Mr Evans said.

"The negative comments and conversations you get from other people, the confusion, the stress and the worry was festering in my mind. I'd recognised that I'd needed some help and started seeing someone."

He would end up doing five sessions with a councillor, but at the end he was still stuck in his old ways.

"I walked away and thought the conclusion was to just go back to where I was, stick my head in the sand and keep going and everything would be alright," he added.

"I was pretty much a macho person and I wouldn't let you know. I was determined to never let you know what was going on in my mind."

It was the Goulburn man's next step which would set him on a collision course with Mr Stedman.

The pair would meet while taking part in a seminar put together by the Mindset Project Journey - which aims to challenge stereotypes and taboos about mental health.

They talked about life and discussed the problems Mr Evans was facing.

"Then I opened up," he said.

"Jamie would listen to my story and he would ask me if I'd ever considered doing this or that. He then made me aware that after I'd had a couple of explosive confrontations at work, that I had a choice. I needed to hear from someone that I had a choice. It calmed me down in a huge way."

That encounter came towards the end of 2020. Fast forward to 2022 and Mr Stedman had launched his 'Beyond the Bullshit' mental health program in Orange. Upon hearing this, Mr Evans knew that continuing to better his mental health was something worth travelling for.

"There's a lot of people who have this perception that because you're so macho and you stand up there and puff your chest out, they just think you're not breakable," Mr Evans added.

"Life is so hectic, that you will become stressed whether you like it or not. Stress will find you."

The Goulburn man decided to speak out about his mental health journey as a way to encourage others to do the same.

"You go through life thinking life is about money and assets, but really, wealth is simple happiness," he added.

"I'm not fixed, I haven't got the magic pill and taken it, but it's a work in progress."

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