Following a long struggle with mental illness, she now wants others to know there is a reason to keep living. 

She said while most were aware of an increasing suicide rate and it was good that people were talking about mental health, it was also important to highlight stories of survival.

“People think it’s always a life-long illness but it’s not,” she said. “You do recover and you learn to live with it.”

Mrs Mifsud is now married with a one-year-old daughter, expecting her second child and is mere months away from completing her business degree. 

“People think if you have a mental illness you either struggle with it forever or you die but there is another option,” she said. “You can get better.”

The Warrnambool mother now describes herself as happy and mentally healthy but says she wouldn’t be if she hadn’t accepted help.

“I was so afraid of saying something… feeling like I was a burden,” she said. “But just talk.”

As a teenager Mrs Mifsud was cyber-bullied. 

While her father was undergoing lung-cancer treatment and her sister faced a mental illness, Mrs Mifsud said there wasn’t much of an opportunity to talk to her family.

“I thought I could handle it on my own and that’s my biggest regret,” she said. 

By 17 she had been diagnosed with depression, a mental health disorder and an eating disorder.

In just 11 months she made multiple attempts on her life and was admitted to hospital. 

Mrs Mifsud said the turning point for her journey occurred when a doctor treating her wounds had burst into tears.

"I realised I did have an impact on other people,” she said. 

Mrs Mifsud said from that point she accessed every resource in the south-west, praising the “overworked” duty workers and the support of her (now) husband. 

“There are so many people who care,” she said. “Without (them) I’d be dead.”

Mrs Mifsud said it was common knowledge that more people were taking their own lives, which was why she wanted to share her story and give others hope.

“The bravest thing I’ve done is continue my life when I wanted to die.”

For crisis or suicide prevention support visit lifeline.org.au or call 13 11 14.