I'm 17 and finished school last year. As part of the rite of passage that seems practically compulsory these days, all my friends and I headed to the Gold Coast to celebrate leaving school at Schoolies.

On the second night, my good friend (who I knew had been depressed for some time) locked himself in his room and deliberately swallowed lots of pills and alcohol and had to go to hospital. Fortunately he survived although it was a devastating situation and left my friends and I to deal with our pain in some dangerous ways.

Schoolies is so much fun but also quite a toxic environment for teenagers who aren't used to the freedom and the massive amounts of extra peer pressure of that week. I really wish I had told someone about my friend's problems beforehand so that he didn't have the opportunity to harm himself at Schoolies, when we were all supposed to be celebrating. As they say on the wristbands... 'stay safe and watch out for your mates'.