The Doch #8

ELISABETH MURDOCH HOUSE NEWSLETTER 2020 EDITION 8 September 9

The

DOCH

Artwork by Olivia Molly Rogers Cover Design: Burgess-Hoar Cover photo:Ruby featuring Millie, Ruby, Nikki & Millie. Covid evacuation

Dear EM, More than 40% of Year 12 students report symptoms of anxiety and depression higher than the normal range for their age group. Half of all mental health conditions in adulthood emerge by age 14, and three quarters by 24. In knowing these statistics and that COVID-19 has had a profound impact on daily lives, which has unquestionably added to the mental load we bear; I was so grateful to welcome Olivia Molly Rogers to speak to the EM students via Zoom. Olivia is a qualified speech pathologist, model and budding artist who is using her platform and social media reach to facilitate discussion around mental health. Olivia shared her story with EM, of her struggle with depression, anxiety and disordered eating. The informal and intimate setting coupled with Olivia’s courage and authenticity helped to breakdown the stigma associated with mental illness and created an environment where students felt safe to ask questions. It is so important to talk about mental health and if you or someone you know is in need of support, please seek it early. Just like physical conditions, mental health conditions can be managed. Please reach out to me, your remote learning coach, or a significant adult in your life. There are also external support services including Beyond Blue and Head Space you can contact. Remember, you are loved, and you are not in this alone.

Ms Mel Bower Head of Elisabeth Murdoch House

Disordered Eating.

How my unhealthy relationship with food developed.

- from O.M.R. blog oliviamollyrogers.com I know that my attitude toward food changed at around the age of 8-9 years old when my parents split up. I gained quite a bit of weight and went from being a slim kid, to kinda a chubby one. I remained overweight for a few years and I know that this is when I developed some significant insecurities and I had a lot of self doubt. I didn’t like exercise because I was SO self-conscious and uncoordinated... I thought of every excuse under the sun to sit out during P.E. classes. I didn’t like wearing anything that would expose my arms or legs, and I hated having my picture taken. A lot of my friends were slim and would eat whatever they wanted, they were also really active and enjoyed life. I remember being jealous of them, I felt sad a lot of the time and I preferred to spend time alone. I still tried to participate in social activities but I often felt awkward and as though people were judging me.

It wasn’t til I was about 13 and I took up rowing, that I started to realise how much better I felt when I did exercise and ate wholesome, nutritious foods. Our rowing coach encouraged us to eat more of ‘the good stuff’ (i.e. veggies and fresh protein sources like fish and chicken, and slow burning carbs like sweet potato), and less ‘junk’ . My chubbiness started to leave me, but I wasn’t really focusing on that. I was loving rowing because I finally found a sport that I wasn’t completely terrible at. The weight came off because I had changed my lifestyle and diet BUT my goal wasn’t to lose weight which I think

is important to note. Weight loss kind of came as a by-product of being healthier. However, although I was losing weight and I got down to a pretty typical size for my age, my insecurities still hung around like a bad smell. I still didn’t like wearing anything even slightly revealing, I especially hated getting into my bathers in front of anyone and I continued to compare myself to my slimmer friends.

Fast forward a few years, I was 17 years old working on my year 12 assignments, when I opened my Facebook to find a message from a modeling agency asking me to meet with them.

My first thought was that they must’ve sent it to the wrong person, because why on earth would they want me? AS IF I could be a model. I was hesitant to respond, but I spoke to Mum and she said I might as well give it a go and see what happens. Eventually the agency convinced me to do a course with them and I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, taught me more about myself and enabled me to meet a lot of new people. On top of that, I felt as though it taught me a lot of other skills that would translate into everyday life, so I decided it might not be so bad to give modeling a shot.

One year or so later, I had traveled overseas for a while on my gap year so I had only modeled in a few test shoots and had a couple of paid jobs.

My agent told me had the potential to do so much more. She said that I could make it internationally and they wanted me to meet with an agent from Japan. I was told that I could make up something like $20,000 in 4-6 weeks (!!!) but the catch was, my hips ‘had to measure less than 90cm’ I started exercising all the time, walking, running, and kick-boxing, every day if not twice a day. I cut so much food out of my diet, to the point where I was only eating a little bit of muesli for breakfast, skipping lunch (or having a coffee and an apple if I was struggling) and eating a tiny dinner consisting of a select group of veggies (and maybe half a fillet of fish). I started measuring my hips, waist and bust (the measurements needed for modeling) every morning and night. I weighed myself every day, sometimes twice a day, and at the end of the week I would work out my average weight for that week. My mindset was incredibly unhealthy but I kept con-

vincing myself it was okay because I was doing it for a ‘solid reason’. I started viewing most foods as ‘bad foods’ and if I ate them, I felt so ridiculously guilty that I would seriously panic. I started avoiding social situations which involved food (i.e. pretty much every social situation; coffee, brekky, lunch, dinner, drinks with friends) because I knew I’d either have to eat the ‘normal food’ or everyone would notice how weird I was acting. It was exhausting to maintain and eventually I spiraled out of control.

I ended up with severe anxiety and depression and I believe my disordered eating played an enormous part in this. Unfortunately, whilst I did seek support for my anxiety and depression (from my GP and a psychologist) I never opened up about my disordered eating. I refused to talk about it because of a number of reasons. The main reason was that I knew what I was doing was wrong but I had gotten to a point where I was terrified to stop because I was absolutely terrified to gain weight and I wanted to continue modeling. Telling someone my issues with food would mean getting ‘better’ and I didn’t want to get better. It’s only now I can see how much more damage I did to my mind and body by suffering in silence for so much longer. I hope that by being open about my experience, it can help others to do the same.

If you or anyone you know is going through a similar situation, please seek support. The earlier you open up the better. I know it is scary but with support, you can get through it. I suggest speaking to a close friend or family, or someone you trust first, then your GP and a psychologist.

Also, some helpful online support networks are listed below. https://wisemind.com/ https://www.beyondblue.org.au/ https://au.reachout.com/mental-health-issues https://thebutterflyfoundation.org.au/

Staying Connected Watch this space for events in the next week to help us keep in touch, during our final week of Term 3 and over the break.

Using Prezi, we plan to construct a world map that indicated where each Elisabeth Murdoch girl is at the moment. This would display how although our house is currently geographically distanced, our house is what brings us together and we are all still just as close and there for each other. This map would be presented in a format similar to this (with more specific labels) -

- Caitie

Kahoot Morning Play a fun quiz against the house, whilst on zoom, to test your knowledge on movies, song lyrics or tv show characters! We will send out a poll and the theme with the most votes will be played.

Date: Wednesday, 16th of September Time: 8:35am during EM House Assembly

Left, Rocky Road. Above, Babka (Jewish sweet bread) both by Eliza Frazer. yum!

This piece of Graffitti from 2011 located behind the old BW Theatre

Each Time Rumi

There is not a flood in all the worlds that can douse a sacred flame in me, that builds, that rises even higher, each time I slay another fear.

Rumi was a 13th century Persian, poet, theologian and mystic.

Matthew Johnstone - Is a writer and artist who works with the Black Dog Institute on raising awareness around depression management.

PEOPLE PROFILES

NAME: Natasha Brophy YEARS AT GGS: 4 Involvements at GGS: Germany exchange, badminton, Lombok charity, soccer and middle school tutoring Away from GGS: Playing with my pets, riding horses and watching lots of Netflix Best thing about being a boarder in EM: Getting to see my friends every day and all of the dogs!!

Future Ambitions: Not really sure yet, but I’m working on it Favourite moment this year in EM: Winning house music!

Someone who you would want to live with and why? This can be ANYONE in the world Conan Gray because I find him so funny and I love his music, so I feel like he would be super fun to live with.

Ceramic mug and images from ‘EM in Hermi’ by Millie Forwood

Get Back to Nature

Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. It may even reduce mortality, according to scientists such as public health researchers.

Pictured, a Fitzgerald - presumed Dibs, seeking solace in Limeburners’ Lagoon