Isolation, disconnection, high pressure.
These are some of the words Lani Hilder used to describe what it can be like as an employee in the mining industry.
She worked in Queensland's coal mining mecca — the Bowen Basin — for a decade.
"I struggled a lot, I had a breakdown in a relationship, I drank a lot," she said.
She has turned that first-hand experience into a career, working as a counsellor who focuses on mining and fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers, and their families.
"There's a lot of disconnection and disruption in the family, I've seen a lot of divorce and a lot of infidelity," she said.
Lani Hilder wants better resources and education for workers in the industry. (ABC News: Scout Wallen)
A 2018 study published in the Medical Journal of Australia found psychological distress is significantly more prevalent in the remote mining and construction workforce than in the overall Australian population.
Ms Hilder said this was compounded by frequent deaths and serious accidents in the industry, which affected mine workers on a "great scale".
So far this year, four workers have died in Queensland's mines.
"They're losing mates," Ms Hilder said.
A spokesperson for Resources Health and Safety Queensland said operators in the resources industry, including mines, were required by law to manage the risks of exposure to psychological hazards, which included the effects of remote or isolated work, poor environmental conditions, violence, aggression, bullying and harassment.
"If operators are found to be ineffectively managing psychosocial hazards, then we would take appropriate regulatory action," they said.
In 2015, the Queensland government conducted a parliamentary inquiry into FIFO work practices in regional Queensland.
Queensland's Bowen Basin is a hub for coal mining in Australia. (ABC Tropical North: Hannah Walsh)
Out of 19, three of it's recommendations aimed to address mental health service gaps for FIFO workers, which the government supported "in principle".
In response to the inquiry, a spokesperson for the Queensland Resources Council said the Respect@Work portal was developed to "assist with discussion and prevention strategies for supporting Queensland's resources industry workers".
But, Ms Hilder said in some cases, mental health education on the ground did not go deep enough.
"I think that they're having a go but they're not getting the right resources and the right education so it can be a tangible, practical thing for people," she said.
Ms Hilder said workers needed to know about the signs and symptoms of mental health struggles, and how to address incidents and troubling situations.
PTSD in the mines as a counsellor
Neal Davies worked as a counsellor in Central Queensland's mining industry for two years.
Although it was his job to look after the mental health of the mining workers, the nature of the work led to his own post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis.
From suicides to fatal accidents, he said he was exposed to an "awful lot" of critical incidents during the last six months in the job.
Neal Davies was a counsellor in Queensland's mines. (ABC News: Scout Wallen)
"I was going into depression," Mr Davies said.
"Then anxiety and the nightmares were horrific, the flashbacks."
His wife Cathie Davies also worked as a counsellor in the mines.
"Neal was on suicide watch," she said.
"I would go out to the mine sites [to work] not knowing if he would be home alive when I got home."
Mr Davies has a clear message for those experiencing similar issues, which he has penned in a memoir.
Neal and Cathie Davies have written a memoir about his experience. (ABC News: Scout Wallen)
"There's always light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
"We all go through something in our life, but we come out the other side, if we want to."
Like Mr Davies, Ms Hilder wants to help people working in the industry.
She has developed a mental health education training program to address these needs, which she wants to implement in the mines.
"I know as an industry we really need as much support as [we] can," Ms Hilder said.