\u201cI\u2019m just Josh.\u201d At first, you would think that statement not quite accurate. Joshua Cunniffe is more than just a Creative Writing and Advertising student at Curtin \u2013 he\u2019s also published a book and speaks regularly on mental health issues and depression.<\/p>\n
Josh was hit pretty hard as a teenager by a family tragedy and two years later he realised he was suffering from depression. He noticed that he was moody more often, more agitated and irritable and would doubt himself constantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t talk to anyone in my family about it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut luckily I had a good friend who, though he knew nothing about depression, actually listened to me and asked me why I felt the way I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
So he did what he usually did to cope \u2013 he started to write.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would help me,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I thought it would help others because then they would know that they weren\u2019t alone in experiencing this and I didn\u2019t want to feel alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
It took six months to write the first draft of Behind The Smile<\/em> and then eight months to get it published after it was sent to Allan Watson, the editor at Roundhouse Press.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the manuscript of Behind The Smile<\/em> landed on my desk (so to speak) I had to wonder if it would turn out to be a dog’s breakfast of an ego trip or both,\u201d Mr Watson says. \u201cI was quickly reassured on both counts, as I found a well-conceived and well-constructed tale that I found very moving.\u201d<\/p>\n After the philanthropist Ros Wellington read the manuscript, Josh was asked to be a speaker on Lifeline WA\u2019s Help Me campaign and to contribute a chapter to their book A Glimmer of Hope<\/em>. Roundhouse Press then published 1000 copies of Behind The Smile<\/em> in 2011 and it sold out.<\/p>\n Lifeline WA has now put in part of the funding required to print another 1000 copies to distribute to all high schools.<\/p>\n Josh is now working on a second book \u2013 a novella titled Apologies And All<\/em>. He is constantly writing, carrying a notebook around with him to catch his thoughts in.<\/p>\n \u201cIt helps calms me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n During Curtin\u2019s Mental Health Week<\/a> this year, Josh will be up on a stage, talking about his experience.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes that\u2019s what people need \u2013 someone to stand up there and say \u2018I went through this and it got better so it can get better for you too\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I can do that \u2013 because I am just Josh.\u201d<\/p>\n Lifeline WA is still running the Help Me<\/a> campaign. You can also find out more about Josh\u2019s book Behind The Smile<\/em> <\/a>and check out the schedule for Curtin\u2019s Mental Health Week<\/a> activities this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joshua Cunniffe isn’t “just Josh” as he claims to be. He’s a Curtin student who has published a book, is writing another one and is a regular speaker on issues of depression and mental health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-4902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/joshua-cunnife-1.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Â鶹ֱ²¥"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 13:12:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=4902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}