The writing path

3 June 2008
When Mary Dennis tells people she's a fulltime writer, they tend to shake their heads and say, "You won't make any money from it."

Asked what she wants to achieve with her writing, the 18-year-old laughs and says: “International fame, of course. My philosophy is that if others can do it, why can’t I? Some people say, ‘I’d like to write a novel one day’. But they’re not writing. I write every day. It’s my passion. I know that whatever happens, I will always want to write. When I write a good story or poem about something painful it’s a real release. It’s self-help.”
 
Last year, when Mary was in Year 13 at Wellington High School, she won the secondary schools division of the 2007 Sunday-Star Times Short Story Competition with her story, Have You Tried Therapy? Winning the prize was one of the happiest moments of her life.
 
Mary’s story was competing against more than 500 other entries. The judge, writer David Hill, described her story as “an emotionally powerful story of isolation and bleakness, nicely balanced by jet-black humour and moments of splendidly accurate observation”.
 
Her own experiences
It was, she says, based entirely on her own experiences of trying different therapies – both in New Zealand and Germany, where she lived with her family between 2002 and 2005. “I wrote about situations that were extremely painful but I think that humour is a good way to say what you want without falling into the trap of using clichés or melodrama. It lifts your story without trivialising the pain.”
 
Mary talks openly about the depression that first hit her at the age of nine. When her classmates asked her last year why she’d been away from school, she was able to tell them the truth. “I suffer from depression.”
 
There were, she says, no negative reactions. “There was a great feeling of freedom to be able to say why I’d been away without making excuses.”
 
She also talks about what has helped her and what hasn’t. Some of the therapists made things worse, she says. They made her feel as though it was her fault. “The main theme of my story is about not being heard; about people not listening to what the problem is and coming up with their own theories.”
 
Peer support
For Mary, talking to her peers has been the biggest help. Her mother got in touch with the Wellink Trust Te Hononga Ora, which provides services for people with mental illness, and Mary became a member of its Youth Governance Group. “We meet once a fortnight and our aim is to try and improve youth mental health services. We’ve all experienced mental illness but we’re all dealing with life on a daily basis, like everyone else.”
 
Mary says writing is how she identifies herself. “Writing has saved me from defining myself by my mental illness. I have chronic depression and severe anxiety, but I am a writer. There’s a difference.”
 
She is hoping to do the Whitireia Community Polytechnic creative writing course and in the meantime, she is working on short stories and poetry, and planning to enter more competitions. Three of her poems were recently accepted for Re-Draft, a collection of work published by the Christchurch School for Young Writers.
 
With the help of her mother and sisters, Mary is still searching for the treatment that suits her best. “My message to others with mental illness is ‘Don’t give up’. You will be knocked back but if you keep trying, you will find the right path for you.”

This story was first printed in the Mental Health Commission's magazine, Mentalnotes.