Have you felt tired for no apparent reason, then unable to sleep when your head hits the pillow, unable to stop the thoughts running through your mind?

Have you been in a state where you feel hopeless or that even the smallest of tasks was an effort?

Whether it’s due to overwhelming workload pressures or desperately trying to finish the Christmas shopping – that tightening of the chest, the feeling of insurmountable dread, the racing heart rate – anxiety is increasingly becoming a part of the human condition in modern society.

Some handle it better than others – some even thrive on living in a manic environment – but, for a lot of us, it causes a malfunction in our thinking that is like a virtual roadblock to completing everyday functions, both socially and professionally.

Anxiety may be the most common mental health condition in Australia, but it’s only a small part of the complicated labyrinth that is mental health.

Left to fester, relatively minor issues can turn to mental demons not easily kept in check. 

The statistics make for sobering reading – in any given year, one in five of us will experience a mental illness, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being.

More than a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds had experienced a mental disorder and, even among those with the most severe mental health problems, only half of them receive professional help.

NSW Mental Health Commission Deputy Commissioner Bradley Foxlewin said last year a groundswell of grassroots community members coming together and supporting each other is needed to reach true reform.

“Something particular happens when people with similar experiences get together and have been previously isolated that can’t be manufactured by a service.”

Mr Foxlewin said the current system was a one-size-fits-all approach because everyone was being treated at an acute level. 

Residents in rural areas still stigmatise mental health as a weakness of character and, until we shine a light into the dark corridors of our society, nothing is going to change.

Like most problems in life, the first step on the path to recovery is admitting that we have a problem.