![](https://thelimbic.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/April-28_-2017_Steve_Robson___002-224x300.jpg)
Prof Steve Robson
A medical college president has opened up about his near suicide attempt three decades ago, and the fellow intern who prevented it.
Professor Steve Robson, president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), says for too long shame and fear kept him silent about his mental health struggle as a junior doctor.
But now – inspired by the #CrazySocks4Docs movement – he is sharing his story in the hope it may encourage others in similar situations to seek help.
Writing in MJA Insight, Prof Robson describes his descent into depression halfway through his intern year at Rockhampton Hospital in 1988. He says he had an “all-pervasive” sense of failure after his work was rated barely adequate. Poor feedback from consultants and registrars, coupled with guilt over the death of a patient left him feeling there was “no way out”.
He took some medication from the hospital and went home to his small hospital unit, prepared to end his life.
But as he prepared to administer the intended fatal dose, he was interrupted by a knock on the door from an un-named fellow intern, who engaged him in conversation and prompted him to “step back from the brink”.
“Looking back, that person probably had an inkling that I was about to do something dramatic. That impromptu visit saved my life,” he writes.
Professor Robson says he confessed his near suicide plan to a GP who advised him not to disclose details of his mental health to anyone for the sake of his career as well as financial matters such as insurance.
“The episode left me with two key messages: [I] would never be appointed to a training program and seeking help was a sign of weakness, something to be ashamed of and hidden.”
Professor Robson says his decision to reveal his troubled past now is to show that mental health problems are nothing to be ashamed of or remain silent about.