This was a story I could relate to. I am autistic, and my realisation that something was wrong was when I was 30 and I had been having recurring nightmares about bullying I'd experienced at school. I rang Lifeline, and the counsellor I spoke to told me that it was my subconscious telling me to deal with it.

I went and saw my GP. Psychological counselling began not long after, and so did treatment with antidepressants.

I lived in a seaside town for a while, but I was in a share house, and my mental health declined. What else caused the decline was the small town, conservative mentality. I was making every excuse I could to go back to the city, even driving when a cyclone was coming to have a hospital treatment. People advised me to put it off, but I couldn't, I was so depressed.