John Parkinson says the COVID-19 crisis is another challenge forced upon us

But he says those who do find themselves in a dark place must reach out to someone they trust.

Let's Talk co-founder John Parkinson said the coronavirus and the changes to society it had brought were like any challenging adjustment often faced in life.

"My take home message is if you do find yourself getting into those dark places, for goodness sake talk to somebody about it, whether it's the next door neighbour or whoever you feel is going to give you respect and listen to you ," he said.

"This has been an external event that we've had no say in and no control over but I think what it's actually resulted in is getting much more of an appreciation of life.

"Particularly when you look at the fatalities of the northern hemisphere and the disruptions over there.

"Anything is challenging at the best of times, no matter what we have in life."

Mr Parkinson said the coronavirus pandemic was a life event stress similar to a relationship breakdown, loss of employment or financial pressure.

"This is another thing but it has been forced upon us," he said.

But out of the challenges, Mr Parkinson said some people had become more connected to each other than ever before.

"There's so much banter and so much humour being put on social media and we're all accessing it because we've got so much more time on our hands," he said.

"I think that's the other positive thing that's happened. It's put people in a different head space where the busyness of our life has actually decreased substantially, so we've now found other ways to amuse ourselves (and to find) more meaning in our day-to-day life.

"We talk about flattening the curve, the curve has flattened to a degree with the level of emotional distress that has been embedded in our society for decades now. I think we're resetting ourselves."

Mr Parkinson said the south-west was also about to take pride in how the community had responded to the crisis.

"I think down here in this area we're proud of ourselves for the way we've managed, we haven't had a positive test since March 24," he said.

Mr Parkinson said resilience played a big part in how different people responded to challenging life events.

"We're all vulnerable right from when we're born, it depends on what happens at any given point of time and our level of resilience," he said.

"For those who have found themselves unemployed, there's a huge void because work takes up a huge chunk of our life so that gives us more time to think and more time to worry what the future might hold for us.

"Which is why it's so important to look at it and say even though I've incurred all these losses which I've had no input into, what can I still be grateful for within my life?

"If we look at Australia there are a lot of things to be grateful for, it just depends how we think about it which then equates to how we feel.

"I always come back to being grateful, looking at what we do have as opposed to what we don't have.

"Let's be honest, this isn't forever."