Sir John Kirwan paid Nayland College a special visit last Thursday the 6th of September. The high-profile former All Black, butcher and tireless mental health campaigner spoke to a group of about 60 students and staff.

Westpac mental health ambassador Sir John has spoken openly about his own mental health struggles for many years.  In his talk he described how his depression and anxiety dominated his life for a very long time, causing him to lose his self-esteem and self-confidence.

He says that our society’s perceptions of depression causes additional hardships for those living with it. “The reason I’m here today talking about it is because it’s all illness, and not a weakness,” he said. “And we treat it like a weakness.”

In an interview with our own Nayland on Air’s John Valentine, Sir John had a special message for those teaching and raising teenagers. “For parents and us older generation, don’t ever underestimate the pressure that’s on our youth nowadays. I think one of our responses is ‘that happened to me, they’ll get through it’.”

However, he says that with such fast-moving technological changes in mobile devices, social media and the internet, generational gaps are accelerating. The world young people nowadays are navigating is a far cry from the kinds of challenges the previous generation had to face. In the face of such change and without having had the time to develop our responses to it, Sir John advocates open dialogue and discussion as the most important thing in helping young people.

“First listen, don’t judge and then walk the journey with them. Do everything you can to get the best care possible, like you would with any other kind of illness.”

According to Phoenix house dean Sam Maitland, Sir John had an engaging way of connecting with his audience. “The key messages were resilience, well-being and mental health,” Mr Maitland said. “He had a great way of describing his struggle with depression and anxiety and made it very accessible to teenagers, with his descriptions and metaphorical view - his "demons" were sharks, as he is a surfer.”

Year 12 students Eden Rutherfurd and Dayla Ward also got a lot out of attending the talk. Dayla said the way Sir John got the audience interacting, such as when he told them to get up and hug five people in the room, or to stand up and think of a song and then dance like crazy to it for five seconds, helped to break down inhibitions.

Eden took away a clear message. “If you think that everything’s not as serious as it seems to you, that takes the heat off.  Also, nothing’s that big of a deal - unless you make it one.”