First break

The ongoing struggle of living with a diagnosed mental illness is portrayed in this program through candid interviews over one year with three teenagers, who are experiencing mental illness, and their families. Their personal stories, shared with great sensitivity and honesty, illuminate the challenges and dis-orientating effects of mental illness as well as its impact on their conception of their self-identities and their relationships with family and friends. As the camera follows the course of their lives over this period we are given an insight into their own hopes, strengths and achievements as well as their frustrations in dealing with their mental illness in every day life. “First Break” also questions the stigmatised view of mental illness through these very personal stories, providing a portrait of young people coping with their experiences and the powerful changes it has meant for their own as well as their families lives.