Sonia's battle to beat blues

Sonia Gray says depression feels 'like you are cloaked in despair'.

TV presenter fronting campaign to assist young women to deal with depression.

Lotto presenter Sonia Gray has started a mental health awareness campaign for young adult women.

Ms Gray, now a mother of 5-year-old twins, fought a 10-year battle with depression from the age of 18 and sees a gap in services for other young women between school and motherhood.

"I think everyone realises that, as much as John Kirwan is amazing and has done so much for mental health, there are demographics that don't necessarily relate to him," she said.

"Young adulthood was quite a pivotal time in my life, and for a lot of my friends. There is nothing that prepares you for that. You have no idea that someone else is going through it, has been through it.

"It's about somehow just getting conversations started."

On Sunday night she organised a charity auction in Auckland which raised more than $10,000 for research into how to meet young women's needs.

One bidder paid $1000 for a coat worn by Lorde on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Other items auctioned included jewellery, garments and a night out for two with Outrageous Fortune stars Antonia Prebble and Nicole Whippy.

Mental Health Foundation development manager Paula Taylor said the research would be used to seek funding for a campaign to reach young women, possibly through social media, and for services, possibly a mentoring scheme using women in their thirties who have been through depression and gone on to lead successful lives.

Women aged 18 to 30 have the highest rate of depression of any age group except women aged 80 and over.

Ms Gray, who counts her monthly book group night with friends as part of her strategy for mental health, said she would love to be part of a mentoring scheme. Her own experience began at university in Wellington where she was "just not coping".

"Everything was just too hard," she said. "I didn't really know about depression or anxiety, so I just thought I wasn't trying hard enough when I wasn't coping. Over the next years that spiralled into depression, which was on and off through my twenties."

She had many friends, but she didn't talk about it with them.

"It was very much an internal battle," she said. "I think most people, especially women, just soldier on, and all the stuff, the feelings of low self-worth [stay hidden]. It's terrible. It's like you are cloaked in despair, but all your energy goes into putting on a brave face and battling through."