Dr Dan Harrison has shared his journey with mental health in the hopes of inspiring others who are struggling.
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Dr Dan Harrison has fond memories of growing up in Echuca.
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After making the move from Melbourne in Year 3, he had an idyllic childhood exploring nature, fishing, playing sport, and formed a tight-knit group of friends.
But beneath the fun into young adulthood, an undercurrent of anxiety and discomfort was present, which Dr Harrison said could be difficult to reckon with.
“The way we’re socialised in regional Victoria and country areas ... for guys in general, having any sort of relationship or understanding of your inner-world is a little bit taboo,” he said.
“It’s like ‘have a spoonful of concrete and harden up, have a beer.’
“Some of that’s really good — you can’t go past mateship and helping each other along, pushing through — but you don’t really sit around the campfire and talk about your feelings too much.”
Driven by a desire for a sense of self-worth through achievement, Dr Harrison began studying engineering and computing at the University of Ballarat after finishing high school locally.
Before long, he made the jump into a psychology degree after realising his personal interests were more aligned with the field of mental health.
“I was going to my engineering classes and computing classes, and then I'd come home and pick up psychology books and read those,” Dr Harrison said.
“It was simple like that, but it’s amazing how those little clues in life sometimes pop up and help you.”
Dr Harrison went on to complete a PhD at Griffith University, and in late 2013, he landed a job at a software company in the United States.
He made the move to San Diego, California, with his young family, where they stayed for close to a decade.
While he had an enviable lifestyle from the outside — and enjoyed a lot of success in his role as vice-president, often jetting across the world for work — it came at a cost.
“On paper it looks good: sunny California, the car in the drive, the caravan out the front. But it was brutal, sometimes ...,” Dr Harrison said.
“It’s fun, but then it’s not fun. You miss your family, you miss birthdays, you miss those events, and the years start to tick by like seconds on a watch.”
Issues with anxiety, depression, and general restlessness also followed him overseas, which came to a head after structural changes affected his job.
Work had become somewhere Dr Harrison found relief from issues, as had drinking, but after a series of difficult setbacks, he left the US and returned to Echuca.
While the transition back to base was hard, he soon found reconnecting with the community, nature, his parents, and getting sober was exactly what he needed.
“I thought my serenity and happiness was somewhere over in a desert in California,” Dr Harrison said.
“Looking back on it, it was all about the next thing: I’ll be happy once I do that, once I get here, and I can have a rest once we do this.
“Life continues to happen and snowball. Things get added to that snowball: kids, family, commitments, mortgages. Everything starts to get bigger and bigger, and you’re in there somewhere, too.”
Dr Harrison worked at Campaspe Shire Council for a year, and reconnected with the value of psychology and its meaningful impact on others while back home.
Through this process, the idea of Lumenara was born, a company that uses his knowledge of psychology and technology to improve wellbeing.
The company combines Dr Harrison’s professional background, extensive research, and his own experience with depression and anxiety to connect people with help.
Created with family and friends, Dr Harrison has now launched a Kickstater for Lumenara to further develop the software into an app that can be accessed anywhere.
“I hope the app can alleviate suffering and help people to experience more joy and happiness,” Dr Harrison said.
“If they’re able to help themselves in that way, and learn a little more about their inner-world, perhaps it doesn’t have to get to where I got to in my journey.”
Dr Harrison plans to set up an office in Echuca for the next few months to run his next wellbeing program locally.
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