Williamstown’s Nikolina Mabic has been recognised in the Victorian Young Achiever Awards for her work supporting people with mental health issues.
Ms Mabic, 23, first saw a psychologist at age seven, before she knew the meaning of anxiety or panic disorder.
“I entered into a system I felt didn’t provide me the right knowledge or assistance in aiding me in my struggle,” she said.
“It caused me to have a great passion and will to become an advocate for young people on mental health and an innovator in its prevention and treatment methods.”
The Footscray City Films graduate said her own journey and frustration with treatment inspired her to produce a documentary series titled The First Giant Hurdle.
“I interviewed people from all walks of life on their journeys with mental illness, including a former NRL player and a Miss Universe contestant suffering from mental ill-health, who were achieving despite their mental illnesses.”
Ms Mabic has overcome many barriers to get to where she is. Asked to leave school in year 11 due to low attendance because of hospital treatment, she moved schools and became one of its highest achievers.
As a teenager, she was housebound for nearly nine months due to panic disorder.
“Once on a flight to Sydney, I held my feet suspended above the floor because I believed if I let them down the plane would drop from the sky,” Ms Mabic said.
“Even though the fear was so great, I decided to apply for the Foundation for Young Australians’ Young Social Pioneers program in 2016, knowing very well that if I was accepted I would have to be flown to Sydney to participate.”
She was accepted and in the span of three months in 2016 was able to fly four times.
“My mental health journey is still ongoing – I am still unable to catch public transport and I struggle to drive myself some days,” Ms Mabic said.
On Friday, she won the prestigious Saward Dawson Community Service and Social Impact Award.
Ms Mabic has been appointed to the north-west advisory board of youth mental health service Orygen.
She was named Hobsons Bay Young Citizen of the Year in 2017.
