Osher Günsberg penned an emotional letter to his 18-year-old self, which he read live on air this morning to mark RUOK Day.
The Hit radio host’s heartfelt missive tapped into everything from success to addiction and his struggles with mental illness, and ends with the one message a young Andrew G desperately needed to hear:
It’s all going to be okay.
“Dear Andrew,
Hello. I’m an older version of you. I’m very different to the person you are now. So different I even changed my name but you’ll find out about that in 2009.”
“You’ve just finished high school. I say finished because technically you did finish but you didn’t pass or anything. Right now you’re watching all of your school friends go through the adventures of first year university, and you’re feeling ashamed and honestly quite stupid that you’re not as smart as they are.
“You’re ashamed that you’re not smarter, you’re ashamed that you’re unemployed and you’re ashamed that you’re overweight. To top it off, the people that you thought were your best friends in the world are keeping an arms length from you, because you’re starting to act out and get pretty weird.
“You’re experiencing the early but significant signs of what will one day develop into a mental illness, which you will end up taking daily medication for, and I know it’s quite scary. But you think you’ve got it under control because you’re handling those intrusive thoughts and anxiety in the same time honoured way that Australian men have been dealing with mental illness for years, by drinking enormous amounts of alcohol.”