What is GROW?
GROW is a community-based national organisation that works on mental wellbeing using a 12 step program of personal growth of mutual help and support. It operates through weekly peer support groups.
The GROW program is based on lived experience, meaning GROW groups are a meeting of peers.
Members share how they are exploring self-improvement strategies on the road to recovery, as it's not a straight road. This is where the support of other GROW members helps. Everyone in the group also has the opportunity to share their experiences with mental wellbeing. You'll be motivated by the stories from other members, you'll soon realize you're not alone.
My Story
I have for years had overwhelming anxiety and depression without knowing it, only thinking that it was a norm. I just kept working until the day it was so bad in jail. Doing video calls with lawyers had made it so bad that by the time I went to court my whole body started to shake. Even the tools and strategies that I had learnt did not help at the time; I was just starting to learn the ways to cope with things. I was going through all the emotions; happy, sad, angry, even grief, within 5 seconds of each other.
One day someone noticed what was going on and sat me down and quietly told me that I needed help! I was told about the GROW program and they placed my name on the waiting list. An invite came to me two weeks from the time it was placed. The timing was perfect as my dad had just had a stroke and my mum was stressed to the point that she needed help also. I helped in a way by getting my partner to go and help and ask my mum to call my brother to help out, which he did. With all this going on, on the other side of the wall, it was driving me down.
I have now been going to GROW for over one year and have learnt a lot of programs and methods which have eased and lowered both my anxiety and depression.
I now understand why I had the problem with both anxiety and depression as I did not understand the disorder and torment within me. Also, I understand not to get caught up in other's disorder as it gets me in a bad place.
I have helped my mum with things that I have learnt from GROW, while speaking with her by phone. Mum is now back to normal and finding things easier.
GROW is working for me and others in the group. I am grateful I had the chance to join the group as it is changing the way I think and I'm seeing things clearer now with empathy and hope.
I hope that GROW will grow larger over time, both inside jails and outside, to help more people in the way it is helping me. GROW can help people improve their mental health before they do something that may send them into jail or even suicide. Mental health and wellbeing is an important part of life for us all.
