Scarlett
“I had bursts of panic during class and would just run off.
Then I would be embarrassed because I had run away so I wouldn’t return for up to two weeks at a time. Then I had to make up a story to explain why I hadn’t been there.
On the very last day students were required to show their creations. I worked tirelessly for three days and three nights, without sleep, to make up for a whole semester of not actually attending class. The time came and we publicly displayed our work in various forms. The lecturers, students and general public viewed my work but then something or someone set me off, and I fled.
I waited for several hours until everyone had left, collected my compositions, threw them in the bin and raced home, never to be seen again. It turned out that I had actually won several awards and my work had been described as brilliant, but in my depression induced tunnel vision, I was convinced that everyone was lying. I was relieved that all of my work would never again see the light of day. I vowed to never to attempt art again.”
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Not long ago, I heard someone say that how we deal with failure says more about us than whether or not we succeed. This is so very true. It was this thought that gave me the strength to find new dreams.
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One of my depressive episodes went on for so long, I was convinced I must have had some kind of physical illness. I went to my local GP, and told him I was having trouble sleeping, was struggling at school and wasn’t coping so well with life in general. The doctor started to talk to me about hormones and how it’s common for women my age to feel this way. I remember telling him that it just wasn’t like me to be performing so poorly and he said, ‘Well, you’re just going to have to pull your socks up then, aren’t you?’ I left the office in tears.
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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