Negative: I was sad because my eyes were sore and my vision was blurry. I think I slept with my eyes open again. Having the air conditioning on and trying to watch Netflix later didn't help either. Positive: I found a game I could play independently without needing to look at the screen! I actually had my eyes closed as I played it, which helped the pain. I was so excited to be able to play a game without it hurting my eyes. I wish more games would be made like that. I wonder if it would also work with interactive movies/shows, especially if they have audio descriptions. ... View more

@Bananatime04  I don't regret you being on the forums. I think you make such an amazing contribution and I'm in awe of the incredible support you've provided to other people on here. I love reading your posts and chatting to you. :) ... View more

@Bananatime04  I think the plan is to transition us into services that people past the age of 25 can use once we turn 26, but I really miss chatting to some of the members on here who have turned 26. I hope there is a way for the mods to keep in touch with each other, especially as we chat outside the forums and some of us have met in person at the workshop. ... View more

I hope your mum is feeling better @Bananatime04. I think you made some really good choices about how to support her. I really hope your family's situation improves. Unemployment can be pretty stressful. :( ... View more

@Bananatime04  It's always sad when a member turns 26. :( I'll be here for a little while if you need support. ... View more

@musicfan_xo  I haven't used any other mental health forums but other similar services are 7 Cups and Talklife.  They're not exclusively Australian but I know some Australians who have used 7 Cups. I'm not sure of other mental health forums in Australia that can be used to get support for any issue but maybe our community has other suggestions. :) ... View more

@Bananatime04  Are you okay? Hope you are safe. Here for you. ... View more

Hi @LTS_Colossos! Welcome to the forums! :) I'm sorry that you're feeling so sad. I'm here if you want to talk about anything. I'm not very good at telling jokes but here are some funny videos. :) I hope they'll cheer you up. ... View more

I hope you can feel better @xXLexi_Lou122Xx. I think that you're so brave for trying to get through today when you're not feeling well. When I was younger, my mum thought I was too immature to catch a train and navigate on my own. Even now, she doesn't like me going somewhere by myself when I'm sick. ... View more

There was a report trying to raise awareness about functional neurological disorder on ABC's 7:30 today. There was nothing much in the way of treatment, just explaining the disorder and showing patients' stories. Here is the link if anyone is interested. :) ... View more

Hopefully your dad comes home soon. I found this Reddit thread about boredom-busting websites the other day and I've been trying out a lot of the websites if you need some more suggestions. :) I was able to rediscover a really old game I used to play as a kid through it. ... View more

@Tiny_leaf  I hope your dad was able to make you feel safe. How are you feeling now? I agree that the NDIS needs a lot of work, sadly. :( Is there anything that can occupy your attention for a little while? Sometimes, I play random io or browser games just to pass some time. ... View more

Great idea for a Weekly Wellbeing! I'm loving everyone's ideas so far. :) @ecla34  Glad to see I'm not the only one who sometimes gets out of bed at 5pm. I record alarms for medication reminders and record when I've taken them using my phone. If they taste bad, sometimes I block my nose when I take them. @Bre-RO  I do something similar. I leave my eye drops on my desk so that I can remember to take them during the day. I have tried to find ways of building up my stamina and incorporating more exercise into my routine, such as walking instead of taking the bus, aiming to do a little bit more each time, taking the stairs, etc. I've also been thinking of trying some apps to record how much water I drink or make it more fun such as Plant Nanny. @Hozzles  I've tried doing something similar with the activity books! I have a book where you can answer one prompt a day and see how your responses change over three years. I've also tried gratitude journalling and an app which has morning (e.g., 'One thing I like about myself') and evening (e.g., 'What went well?' 'One memory to remember?') journalling prompts. ... View more

@Bananatime04  I'm sorry you're dealing with so much. :( Regarding your stepdad's situation, I'm pretty sure there might be some laws against employers doing that kind of thing, especially if your mum and stepdad quit their previous jobs and were in the process of moving to take the job offer, but I'm not sure. I think there have been legal precedents regarding this. Does your family have a lawyer who can give advice as to what to do? ... View more

@Tiny_leaf  Hahaha it was so strange. I'm not sure what they were hoping to achieve. It's not the only time this has happened to me either and I've heard about something like that happening to someone else as well. It makes me mad because people spend time and money going to interviews, only to discover that the advertised role does not exist. I don't know why employers can't just be honest and upfront. Surely, there has to be a law against false job advertising or something. ... View more

@Tiny_leaf  Some of these experiences make me wonder why it is so hard for employers to just be honest about what the role involves. If they omit important things from the job description, it makes me wonder what else they could be hiding about the company and position. I feel like my time is wasted going to interviews and accepting roles that turn out to be not as advertised. At some places, I've left the interview wondering whether the role actually exists and why they bothered interviewing me. A few years ago, I was sent a position description via email and told to come in for an interview, then as I got up to leave the interview, the interviewer told me, 'We'll get back to you as to whether we are looking for new people'. I then didn't hear from them for over two months until I emailed them back, then they told me that they were not actually hiring. Why advertise the position and arrange an interview then? ... View more

@Tiny_leaf  I wish there would be too. I thought about taking up one of my experiences with a board, but at the time I had lots of stuff going on and I'm pretty sure the staff changed shortly after they terminated me, so in the end I decided to let it go. I think that there should be more laws about false or misleading jobs ads. ... View more

An open letter to employers: - Please do not advertise a job if you're just going to hire your friend or someone internally. This goes for courses with limited places as well. - Please do not omit critical details, such as the actual location, cost of the training, or the amount of travelling required for the role, from a job ad or interview. Additionally, do not tell 'white lies' and try to make the details of the job sound more appealing than they actually are or make promises that you don't intend on keeping, because sooner or later, the candidate is going to find out and you'll just end up looking untrustworthy. - Please do not state that the basic requirements of the role are a degree in a relevant field and one year's experience in a similar role, and then go on to interview and reject a candidate who meets that criteria on the basis of 'We decided to go with candidates with a lot more experience so that we would spend less money on training'. - Please do not reject unpaid interns on the basis of limited experience, or require specific experience of potential interns that one can only gain through volunteering or other unpaid internships. - Please do not advertise a role as being suitable for individuals with disabilities, then later say that the role requires tasks that are difficult for someone with a particular disability to do and be unwilling to make any adjustments for them. - Please do not interview a candidate if you have no intention of getting back to them regarding their application. - Please do not require a candidate to perform superhuman feats during an interview, such as requiring them to memorise and recite the names of specific laws off the top of their head. - Please do not hire a candidate or volunteer just for them to unknowingly 'fill a gap' while you are in the process of hiring a more experienced or paid candidate, and then make them redundant on the basis of 'reduced workload' after the other person is hired/starts working there. - Please do not hire a volunteer/intern/new candidate just for the role to end up being them cleaning up after you, washing your dirty dishes, watering your plants, repairing your toilet, etc. If the position is advertised as being in administration for example, then it should be in administration. Why not hire a paid cleaner, caretaker or handyperson for those tasks? - Please do not hire someone if you don't want to properly train them. - Please do not hire a candidate or volunteer only for them to show up when they are supposed to start the role to have no one know who they are or how to train them, or even for no paid staff to be onsite at that time. - Please NEVER fire/make someone redundant through suddenly ceasing to provide them with shifts, or alternatively, telling them you are going to place them on a different shift without having any intention of doing so and not following up with them. This is particularly heinous because the person ends up not knowing whether to look for another position, change their hours at their other positions, or whether they are still employed. - Please do not advertise a position that you don't really believe that your company needs, or without having a clear plan about what you expect from the position and the purpose that it serves to your company. - Please do not think that the Fair Work guidelines do not apply to you or your company. These things have literally all happened to me, and I'm only young. It has made the job seeking process so disheartening and just makes me want to give up on it sometimes. Please act more ethically and treat your younger staff/volunteers/candidates better. It will improve your reputation and make young people want to stay with you. Sincerely, A young jobseeker. ... View more

I'm looking forward to this one! I hope I can make it. :) ... View more

@Tiny_leaf  I really hope you feel better. ... View more

Hi @Tiny_leaf! Thanks for asking about me. :) I have been feeling better since the stent was removed, but I am still feeling lightheaded sometimes. I saw the urologist on Friday and he said he removed two stones and found calcified plaques in my kidney. I got to see some photos of them which was cool. He believes that the stones are growing from the plaques. Luckily, he doesn't think that it's a parathyroid problem because I have normal calcium levels in my blood. He think it's more to do with having a family history of kidney stones. We are still waiting for the results of the stone analysis so we don't know for sure what the stones are made out of yet. I didn't understand much about this plaque at first, but when I read some of the research about it, I understood it more. It is kind of like how stalactite rocks or grapes grow apparently. He actually isn't sure now if the stones that showed up on the right side are stones or plaques and was thinking about doing another investigation under anaesthetic to see, but I think that's a bit over the top. Every one and a half years, I have to have an ultrasound to monitor my kidneys. In the meantime, I have to reduce protein, oxalates and salt in my diet. I have to eat more citrus and drink lots of water. I was given a referral to see a nephrologist, who the urologist thinks might put me on a tablet, but he told me that chances are I will end up having another 'stone event' as they call them. I've got a few more tests to do to provide more answers and see how I'm going after the surgeries. How are you going? Hope you are well :) ... View more

@scared01  I think that's so true. I was told I am young to have multiple kidney stones, but there turned out to be a family history of them. I have another unrelated condition that usually affects older people but there is a family history of that too. I only know one of one other person who had it around my age. I think a test would at least give you peace of mind, especially as there is a family history of brain tumours. It can be so scary not knowing what is going on if it is something brain-related. :( It could be an idea to stress the family history and mention that you'd like to have a test to ease your concerns. One of my relatives had a rare form of brain cancer that also took a while to be diagnosed and was misdiagnosed as something benign at first. Luckily, she has since gone into remission. ... View more

@scared01  That must be causing so much stress for you. :( I can relate to your situation. Last month, I had some on and off pain I hadn't had before and went to a different GP as my regular GP was away. I had some tests done over a few weeks but they couldn't find the cause of it. The GP told me it was just an infection and couldn't be a kidney stone because I would be in more pain. He discouraged me from having a CT scan due to my age. I was sceptical though because I was still in pain despite having antibiotics and my test results did not show an infection. It stopped for a few days but then it started up again and I couldn't sleep or eat from it, so on a whim I just went to the local emergency department. They took me seriously and immediately suspected a kidney stone, which they then confirmed with a CT scan after the emergency room doctor told me that the benefits outweighed the risks of it. I have since had two surgeries (one being an emergency) because the stone was causing an obstruction and was too large to pass on its own. They were worried about me developing sepsis, so they also put me on multiple courses of strong antibiotics and admitted me overnight after the first one. I'm not saying that your situation is the same, but I'm very lucky and grateful that I decided to get a second opinion. I didn't think it was going to be that serious but who knows what would have happened if I had left it? The urologist told me I would have just suddenly gone downhill and there would have been no other symptoms. I think that sometimes it pays off to be persistent with medical professionals. ... View more

@goldilocks  Would you feel like asking your GP to run some tests to see if there is a medical cause for it? I had to have a blood test, then my GP put me on a medication once we got the results back. After a few months of trialling the medication, she ordered another blood test to see whether it was working. ... View more

@scared01  I'm so sorry to hear that you've been in hospital. :( That doesn't sound very fun at all. I'm glad that they found out what was causing your pain and treated you for it. I hope that your supports can listen to you and work out a plan moving forward. Would it help to write down your points and refer to them, or give them a note? ... View more

@Anonymous  I think it's so cool that you live near a lake! We have a lake near our house where we used to feed ducks as kids. I love listening to music too! :) I haven't been as active as I would like on the forums because I've been dealing with some health issues, but things are starting to settle down now. I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience at your local headspace and with previous psychologists. :( I can see how that would put you off trying a new professional. Have you ever tried any self-directed services such as moodgym, Mindspot or any apps? They can be useful in between appointments. ... View more

My heart goes out to you and your family @pluto. That must be taking a huge toll. I can't imagine how distressing it must be to see your brother struggle with addiction. :( There is an organisation called Family Drug Support  which has a helpline and support services for people with a family member who has drug or alcohol issues. I think it's important to look after yourself too. How have you been coping? ... View more

Hi @Paijache! I think your hobbies sound really cool. :) I'm glad that telephone counselling has helped you in the past. Have you ever thought of trying online services such as email? I believe that Kids Helpline  and eHeadspace offer email services. I've heard that some people prefer email services because it allows them to provide more information than over the phone. There are also other online services, such as moodgym and Mindspot  where you can find courses that you can complete at your own pace. They could be helpful for people who can't easily access face to face services, or to practice skills in between sessions with your psychologist. ... View more

@AnonymousThanks! I chose it because I like collecting squishies. :) Do you have any hobbies? I think it's a bit quiet on here at the moment. I've noticed that there tends to be less activity on weekends. Hopefully, other people can come online and welcome you! :) ... View more