Cory Te Huia wears many hats – rugby coach, music lover, proud Cantabrian and quiz enthusiast. He also lives with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and has found connecting with the people who lift him up has really helped him through.

Looking back, Cory first noticed experiencing compulsions when he was 12.

“I didn’t realise it at the time, but I had developed OCD behaviours, which I learnt from sports.”

“By the time I was 16, OCD had taken over my life. I knew it wasn’t what other people were doing but I was embarrassed, and the shame around mental health was so strong back in those days. I didn’t say anything to anyone.”

As the years passed, the time Cory spent managing his OCD grew. Cory achieved all he wanted to – he’d completed three university degrees, secured a full-time job, and become a rugby coach with a busy social life – but OCD was taking up eight hours of his day. He felt exhausted from managing both OCD and major depressive disorder, and that exhaustion kickstarted his healing journey – 26 years after he’d first noticed something wasn’t quite right.

Cory saw a counsellor and specialists and started medication. Although he had to wait for months to access therapy, Cory finally got the tools he needed to manage his OCD. He felt relieved when he received his OCD diagnosis, as he finally got an explanation for the compulsions he’d experienced for most of his life.

After working through intensive treatment, Cory was given the all-clear to go back to work. He was excited to return, but worried about what people might think.

“People were going to question this five-year gap on my CV. So, I had to start thinking of ways of rebuilding myself. I didn’t know if I had the confidence to go back into work.”

Cory says the anxiety around going back to work and other activities after a long period of mental health challenges is not well understood.

“Recovery is an interesting thing. Getting well is scary, especially if you’ve been unwell for a long time. You’ve got all the support systems there propping you up for a long time, and then you’ve got to learn to stand on your own again with the help of your community and friends.”

Fortunately, Cory discovered a way to both reconnect with his community and help others in a similar situation to do the same. He stumbled upon Intentional Peer Support (IPS), a framework people with mental health challenges can follow to foster safe, mutually supportive relationships. IPS helps people achieve transformative change, learn from their experiences and move towards self-empowerment.

Cory loved practising IPS at Warmline, a Christchurch-based IPS phone line, and chatting to others who were going through or had been through mental health challenges too.

“Warmline was amazing for me, it got me active and contributing again, and connecting to others through my own experiences.

“It also gave me a clear pathway to progress into becoming a mentor, which I did, and then that turned into doing face to face trainings and a job, which was something I was worried about not being able to do again.”

Sharing his story with his colleagues, the players he coaches, and even to the odd Uber driver has sparked moments of connection and vulnerability for Cory, and he has been able to use his experiences to encourage other people to seek support. Cory doesn’t mind sharing and he’s particularly glad when he hears that his story is inspiring to others and pushes them to open up about their own wellbeing as well.

“I stayed away from my friends for so long because I was ashamed of what had happened to me. But I’m more than just my mental health struggles, I don’t live by the label.

I’ve managed to reconnect with those people, and to be proud of my journey and my work in mental health.”