Almost two years ago, I started having these violent panic attacks. I was barely getting out the door. I would wake up with butterflies, I could hardly breathe, just because I had to go to the shop and buy some milk or something. After a few months at Leichhardt Women’s, I’m off my medication and I can practically do anything I want to do, it’s just made such a difference to my life. I can’t believe it myself.

They sort of balance my head and I’m thinking straight again. They taught me how to breathe. I’ve been able to breathe my way out of a really horrible panic attack since I’ve been here and that was all just breathing. It surprised me, it really did. I tell everybody now, they should come and do the breathing course. I don’t even think I thought about the women-only aspect of the centre when I first came, but it’s been really important. All I thought of at first was the help, there’s help there. I would’ve gone anywhere just to get some help. I really was desperate. But everybody at Leichhardt Women’s has just been so lovely, just lovely. So are the people I’ve met through the course and doing Qi Gong. I can sit down and talk to people.

I couldn’t say anything negative about anybody there. I think we went overtime in counselling a few times, I’m sure my counsellor gave me extra time because she knew I needed it. I feel more compassion at Leichhardt Women’s, more understanding than the sting in the doctor’s office.

I was going to a psychologist in Camperdown and I was just part of the factory, just the next customer. The lady I saw did what she did with one person and then my turn was next and the same sort of routine, while here it is more personal. We feel more like a person than just the next patient on the list. It really makes a difference, knowing there is somewhere you can go where you won’t feel humiliated. At the women’s centre, there’s always a smile and always a hello. I feel like I’ve been coming here for ages and I’m new. I feel at home.

I’ve had depression for as long as I can remember. I wish I had known about the centre 40 years ago. My whole life would have been so different, truly.

“I think you feel more compassion at Leichhardt Women’s, more understanding than the sting in the doctor’s office... We feel more like a person than just the next patient on the list.”