(Alex is sitting in a park bench outside, speaking slightly off to the side of the camera)

- I felt overwhelmed, stressed. I couldn't think straight, heart was palpipating, the anxiety was kicking in.

(A title graphic appears on the centre of the screen that reads: Alex talks about ANXIETY)

(As Anisha introduces herself, another small graphic appears on the bottom left of the screen that reads: Alex Peisley 19, Wiradjuri/Wakka Wakka)

I'm Alexander Peisley. I'm a proud Wiradjuri and Wakka Wakka man and my mob is from Cherbourg Queensland where I grew up and also Dubbo, Gilgandra and Condobolin. 

I felt that it kicked in at 17. You'd get the anxiety sickness. You'd want to throw up, but you never would. Feeling very tired, achy. There was a lot of like overthinking thoughts. You were shaken a little bit and you couldn't really like sit still. So there was a lot of those symptoms. Those attacks required me to kind of go outta class.

And my Aboriginal Liaison Officer who noticed me showing up late to school and, and I wasn't really a person to talk out at the time. I had my dad obviously I could talk to, but I just felt like being an Aboriginal man you didn't have that and especially a man, you don't really speak out. So she found out that I, I was going through this stuff and she set me on the path to go see a psychologist. I'm very thankful for her and she's the person why I'm here today. 

I understood why I was getting this stuff and what these were and I, I couldn't really understand until I saw the psychologist and it helped me with my HSC where I was put in special provisions. I could have five minute like rests if I needed to step out, get a drink of water. Having that really changed my last year of school. 

During the anxiety attacks you get all over the shop, like you couldn't really think, you were trying to calm yourself down. So the breathing really helped. A lot of music, going on jogs, basketball, having to take a walk if needed just to calm myself down. Those are the techniques I was taught and I think breathing was the main thing for me to help get my thoughts back to being clear and just to calm my nervous system and my whole body down. 

I hope kids can understand that there is support and especially as Blackfellas, we are the highest in suicide rates. They need that support and high school isn't the be-all, end-all as they describe it. There is other ways, there's TAFE, there's early entries. You can do apprenticeships. I got to uni and I didn't have a great ATAR and I'm doing the degree that I love. You don't have to worry about stress. There's other ways.