Teighan | Takanini
“I’ve always lived in Takanini since I was little. I used to live with my grandparents, in their house, and then my grandparents died, and now we stay there, and I’ve always been in Takanini. Haven’t really moved anywhere else. Always been in South Auckland.
I just feel like people, they just don’t have anyone they can talk to, or feel comfortable talking to without being judged. So they hold it all in. I feel like everyone has [experienced loneliness]. No-one’s not experienced it. I would say probably awhile ago, I used to go with a boy that took me away from my family, sort of like talking to them. So I felt like he was the only person I had, so I felt lonely that I, I didn’t have my family or friends to speak to, and no-one could really relate to how, what I was going through. So, it’s like I was the only person that knew what I was going through and I could only rely on myself. Well, he got arrested, they brought heaps of counsellors and that in. At first I didn’t like talking to the counsellors but then I went through like three different counsellors, and then I finally found one that, she was really nice, and she was kind of like close to my age, that just made me feel like it was alright what I was going through, and that I could just talk to her and trust her.
When I was little I used to live with my dad, and then my mum left, and then we moved in with my grandparents, and then my mum came back, and now we stay with my mum. So I’ve been a little bit everywhere. I think more for my sister, because I have three sisters, and so having them, it’s like always having a friend, and someone that you’ve been through everything with that understands. I would say everyone experiences it. I wouldn’t even say one in three. I reckon everyone, but they’re just too scared to say that they do, or they don’t know like, like when you asked me that question I just didn’t really, I didn’t know how to answer it.
I think it’s because everyone’s going through different parts in life. If you’re going through something that they’ve never been through they don’t really know how to speak about it with you. They don’t know how to handle it. People only do something if they want to do it. You can’t force them to do it. So I don’t really know. Everyone’s different in how they want to do it. If it was me, I would say finding someone you’re comfortable talking to.
Like none of the counsellors – to me it seemed like it was a job to them, and they would get angry at me because I wouldn’t want to share what I was going through, but I can’t just share what I’ve been going through in like the first meeting with them, and that’s what they expect from you. They get really pushy about it. I think, yeah that’s all.”
