Running a Newspaper with Severe Anxiety

By Daniel Sumpton - Founder of the Charters Towers newspaper, Sumpton’s Gold Rush Gazette

The first issue of the Charters Towers Newspaper, Sumpton’s Gold Rush Gazette

I founded a North Queensland newspaper called Sumpton's Gold Rush Gazette when I was just 23, but the whole time I was dealing with more than just printing deadlines.

A bit of context

I want to share parts of my life I usually keep private, if you will indulge me for a moment. While I was born in Mount Isa, I moved frequently before settling in Charters Towers in Year 3. My early years took me through Bundaberg, Upper Coomera, Southport, Parkwood, Studio Village, Townsville and Caboolture before I finally arrived here. I do not remember all of those places, with my earliest memories beginning around Parkwood, but it gives you a sense of just how much chaos my family went through. I started at Richmond Hill State School (RHSS), but I only stayed there 3 years before my grandparents paid to send my sister and I to Blackheath and Thornburgh College (BTC). My Mother offered to keep me at RHSS until high school, but I wanted to go to the fancy private one.

At BTC, I was finally given stability, able to remain there through to Year 12. But by the time I arrived at year 6, I was a chaotic and unpredictable kid. I was not very social, I reacted quickly and intensely, and my creativity was often seen as controversial rather than full of potential. If you imagined me as an attentive student, you would be mistaken. I struggled to sit still, rarely wore my uniform properly, and found it difficult to adjust to a more structured life. Schoolwork rarely held my attention. Instead, I was consumed by reading and writing. I filled my time with poems, lyrics, short stories, even novellas. It was all I really knew how to do. The written word, whether creative, journalistic, political or comedic, was where my focus always returned. By my final year, I was certain of one thing, writing was what I wanted to pursue. The very passion that made others doubt me was the only path I believed could lead me somewhere meaningful.

University life hit me harder than I ever anticipated, both figuratively and literally. In my final year, I was attacked while walking down the street, beaten and robbed. Around that time, I became deeply invested in politics, to the point where it began to outweigh my creative side. I grew convinced that politics was the path I wanted to pursue, driven by a strong passion for policy and public debate. Whenever I returned home, I would even arrange meetings with local politicians to ask how I could enter that world. But as I progressed through my Journalism major, something became clear. It was not politics that drove me, it was the desire to do what I believed was right, and to say what I believed was true. That was what made my heart pound. Writing opinion pieces, and using journalism to shine a positive light on people, brought me far more fulfilment than the idea of hanging around government buildings all day ever could.

So, in many ways, the rest is history on the surface. Here we are, 200 issues later.

Struggling with mental health through it all

What I did not mention while outlining these parts of my life was just how serious my mental health struggles have been throughout. Anxiety was not a side issue, it ran through everything, and at times it became completely crippling. I wanted to give context to how my severe mental health struggles developed. Behind that brief outline of parts of my life I gave you, there are details with so much pain that I will carry them with me to my grave, but the picture is clear enough for you to understand. Even in high school, there were long stretches where I could barely get out of bed, and I came close to failing because of it.

What began as a lack of confidence in social situations slowly turned into constant overthinking, before growing into near total social paralysis. My wife has seen that up close all these years later, especially in the countless moments where I have asked her whether I handled even the simplest interaction properly, or if I got it completely wrong.

It is difficult for me to write, but contrary to what I once expected, my anxiety has worsened with age, not eased. I have become increasingly withdrawn, to the point where even small business interactions can take days of mental preparation. At times, I find myself questioning what future the publication has with me at the helm. My extreme anxiousness has left me too exhausted to participate in many aspects of the business I used to love, like interacting with readers, making business moves, and writing opinion pieces.

Thankfully, the dozens of locals who contribute to the paper each week are amazing and continue to produce content people genuinely want to read. I still manage to secure the most substantial pieces of news, and my wife’s talent and work ethic ensure we get the paper to print every week without fail. Running a newspaper comes with its challenges, and my own mental health struggles have been part of that. Those struggles have only been made worse by a small number of individuals who have spread false information about my business in an attempt to undermine the work of so many locals. Even so, we have continued to push forward and deliver a finished paper to stores each week.

I am genuinely grateful to the local community who have supported us over the years. Their support has been the reason I have been able to keep going.

Slowing down

So here we are. I have opened up parts of my history and given some insight into where I am at. And as you can probably tell, this is leading to one thing, I need to slow down moving forward. I am not sure my mind will make that easy, but I am going to try, for the sake of the people I love. I need to stress less and live more. How that looks exactly, I am still figuring out. For now, it means working at my own pace, spending more time with my beautiful wife, writing passion projects and creative stories, and enjoying the things I love, art, music, exercise, and videogames.

If you see less of me in a professional capacity, just know I am working on getting myself back to where I need to be. The paper will continue to go strong because of the incredible people behind it, and the readers who keep it alive. That will not change. There will just be a little less of me around. And let’s be honest, that might be a welcome break for those tired of seeing my face.

I hope this inspires other people to know that struggling is nothing to be ashamed of. People need to stop beating themselves up over the little things and take the day off if they really need it. I support that.

Thank you all for your support. If you have any questions about the paper, feel free to message me, and if you see my wife Xan, be sure to thank her for putting up with me all these years.