After suffering through sexual harassment aged 16, I moved to work at a hotel. I was their youngest full-time employee at 17. The environment was highly pressurized, and I didn’t have much support from the team that was supposed to be training me in this rotation of my apprenticeship. I was isolated, working long hours and spent the majority of my days off passed out asleep. I spent a lot of the first six months trying my hardest, but nothing seemed to please the people I was working with. When my panic attacks returned at work, I was told all the ways, I was screwing up. So, my stress levels went up and I wondered what I was doing there.
I was able to leave the department and move to the next – FREEDOM! Maybe I could stop going home in tears? Little did I know what was coming. A month and a half into my new rotation, exactly two weeks and two days after my 18th Birthday - at 12:10pm, I entered the next room on my list to clean. Within 10 minutes, I became a victim of sexual assault. That’s when I entered my real hell.
After being signed off work for three months, I officially resigned and got myself into university through clearing, craving something normal. I was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and a side of depression that came with it during this time.
In February this year, I lost yet another job because my ability to concentrate – as it is for so many people with PTSD – was in shreds and impeded my ability to work efficiently. I spent the next two weeks in a state of depression that was borderline severe. I've virtually given up hope of getting any better.
