At 16, Dave was struggling to cope and had turned to self harming and smoking pot. He hopes his story will help others... 

"Abuse is hard to live with, now I think about it, I blocked it out."

"I thought that it was normal but I grew to realise that it wasn’t ok. At the age of 15 my family was falling apart and I tried sharing it with my two closest friends and instead of being there for me they decided to tell the rest of the school. I shut down, I didn’t go to school unless I was forced to. I started self harming and stealing alcohol from my mother’s cupboard and at the age of 16, I started smoking pot."

"Then I met a girl who was a little older and she made me realise that I didn’t need it to be happy. I didn’t need to see my past as a negative. I needed to heal and move on. I needed to show that I was stronger. She showed me she cared about what I had to say."

"And I think that is why Kids Helpline is so important. It shows that someone cares. If I had a chance earlier to talk to someone I would have, because all you need is for someone to listen. I wanna help kids and if just writing this helps, so be it."

"They helped me get my confidence back."