Rebecca
“The agoraphobia began when a new manager started at work. She was apparently convinced that I would blow up our workplace or start stabbing customers left, right and centre because I had bipolar.
She made my life hell for a few months before the union got involved. I ended up having a complete breakdown. I couldn’t leave the house, could barely get out of bed, couldn’t look after myself and would go days without sleeping. I then experienced what my friends call “bipolar rage”. I pretty much just screamed and cried and abused everyone and everything that came near me. The only good thing that can be said about my breakdown was that I completely lacked the motivation to attempt to kill myself. I couldn’t even get in the shower on my own, let alone organise a suicide.”
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“I have bipolar disorder, but it does not have me. So many people I speak to refer to themselves "as" bipolar. I don't. I refer to myself by my name and if it happens to come up in conversation, then yes, I do have bipolar disorder. It does not control me, I control it (most of the time anyway)!
I don't lose my sense of self to it. All that I am, and all that I will be is not merely a mental illness. I am so much more than that. And yet, you may wonder, how can I say that, when one of my goals in life is to raise as much awareness of bipolar as possible? How can I say that, when I am currently working to build a nonprofit organisation for it and spend most of my time working on my bipolar website?
Easily. I do it so I am the one in control. I do it so others out there can gain some control too.”
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Sonya Melbourne
A current member of the Australian Society of Authors and SCBWI, Sonya is a serious and committed author, who treats writing as a business as well as a passion.
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Her mother’s comment that her life was ‘filled with joy’ was what inspired author Sonya Melbourne to write a book about a lifelong struggle her mother has fought with mental illness.
Inspired Recovery will be a compilation of true stories from those diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, who have achieved happiness and success in their lives. In short, Inspired is about the triumph of the human spirit.
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