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Annie Henwood: Cotton Fields to Mental Health Advocate
A young Queensland woman is using her own experiences on a cotton farm and boarding away from home for school to help thousands of rural and regional Australians to deal with mental health issues.
In 1999 Annie Henwood was born into a cotton farming family at Toobeah about 60 kilometres west of Goondiwindi. As a young girl growing up in a rural setting, Annie enjoyed the unique advantages of living on the farm but also experienced social isolation and other challenges of growing up away from town.
“Despite the remote location we had a wonderful family life and loved being on the land. My brothers and I had a great appreciation for farming and in particular cotton and we got used to the hard work that goes with it.”
And the hard work continues. Annie has returned to the farm from the city and was getting ready to drive a spray rig when Cotton Australia interviewed her for this story.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Annie. As with many farm-based rural and regional children Annie and her brothers were sent off farm to get a good education – the Henwood’s chose a reputable Gold Coast boarding school for their daughter.
After completing years 8 through to 12, Annie began a two-year stint working on a family farm at Cloncurry in North Queensland, which she loved. Then Annie headed to University in NSW to begin studying as a nurse. It was the beginning of a party phase for Annie which didn’t end well. “Day to day drinking and little food was a bad combination and I realised I was pushing people away and I found myself in situations that were unhealthy for me.”
“For a number of years, I struggled with mental health issues. This included a wide range of conditions including anxiety, depression and eating disorders and I sought help from various doctors and institutions.”
Annie ended up in a private hospital on the Gold Coast under the care of a specialist in eating disorders and that was helpful but a private clinic in Byron Bay introduced her to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The therapy provided answers as to what was going on in her mind, and showed her a path to better process her late teen and early adult experiences.
“As I emerged from that stage in my life, I was greatly appreciative of the many learnings I took from those kind and dedicated people. I was never afraid to share my experiences and the more I spoke about my mental health issues with others the more I understood that those suffering from the same conditions in rural Australia needed help and information as much as I did.”
Annie knew she had to reach as many people as possible, in part to save them from some of the feelings and mental health implications she herself suffered.
“I was being encouraged to have conversations, not just as part of my own healing but to discover what other people were going through. Returning to the farm was never going to allow face to face conversations so I decided to use a modern media to connect with as many people as I could.”
In March 2021 Annie started her Podcast series – Pieces of the Mind. The first episode allowed Annie to give a piece of her own mind, as the interviewee not the interviewer. Since then Annie has interviewed some of Australia’s best know identities from cities and rural and regional locations. Each podcast episode over three series, 30 at this stage with series 4 about to start – and each one a genuine conversation – sometimes raw, often emotive and never superficial.
“For me Pieces of the Mind is a calling. It’s a way of shining light on mental health in the bush and hearing stories from different people in rural areas.”
Among the highlights from the first 30 episodes is a conversation with Julie McDonald, CFO of MDH, one of Australia's largest privately owned integrated beef cattle enterprises. Julie lives in central Queensland and has had to overcome many hurdles including loosing her husband, life partner and father to her four daughters in 2013.
Another highlight was Olympic swimmer Libby Trickett who spoke about post-natal depression and navigating life after her golden girl career for Australia. “I was so impressed with how vulnerable and open Libby was and that showed all our listeners that everyone can have struggles and develop ways to deal with their challenges.”
Annie is working on series 4 and her fan-base is growing, so where to from here for Annie?
“I’d love to be able to have my conversations heard by a wider audience because I want to be able to help as many people as possible. Radio might be an option. That’s something I would love.”
Pieces of the Mind is available through all major podcast providers, including Spotify and Apple podcasts.
